In this study, the continuity of reading passages from high school mock College Scholastic Ability Test (CAST) English exams across grade levels was investigated using Coh-Metrix. A corpus consisting of 525 reading passages, evenly distributed with 175 passages from each high school grade level, was compiled from the 2017-2023 mock CSAT English exams administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Coh- Metrix measures included basic counts, word frequencies, word features, lexical diversity, personal pronouns, connectives, standard readability, syntactic complexity, coreference, and semantic cohesion indices. The analysis revealed significant differences among grade levels in the reading passages of the mock CSAT English exams in measures such as word counts, average word and sentence length, nouns, age of acquisition, second person pronouns, standard readability, and subject density indices. These findings highlight the potential for refining the design and construction of reading passages in mock CSAT exams to better prepare students for the linguistic challenges presented in the actual high-stakes CSAT.

The effects of exogenous sodium nitroprusside (SNP, nitric oxide donor) on the growth, yield, photosynthetic characteristics, and antioxidant enzyme activity of kimchi cabbage (Brassica rapa L. subsp. pekinensis (Lour.) Hanelt) was studied under the low temperature conditions. Kimchi cabbages were treated with SNP of three concentrations (7.5, 15, 30 mg·L-1) for three times at four-day intervals and exposed to low temperature (16/7°C) stress for seven days. SNP treatment induced increases of net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), intracellular CO2 concentration (Ci) and transpiration rate (Tr) under the stress condition with the highest level after the third treatment. The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 were significantly lower in the treatment of SNP compared to the non-treated control. The activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), increased in treated plants by up to 38, 187, 24 and 175%, respectively compared to the non-treated control. SNP-treated and untreated plants had similar growth characteristics. Compared to the control group, SNP-treatment increased fresh weight and leaf area by 5%. Overall, our findings suggest that the application of sodium nitroprusside to the leaves contributes to reducing physiological damage and enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes, thereby improving low temperature stress tolerance in kimchi cabbage.

살리실산은 식물의 생장 및 발달, 항산화 방어기작, 광합성 작용 그리고 생물적 및 비생물적 스트레스 조건에서 다양한 생리적 기능을 조절하는 물질로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 고온･건조 스트레스 조건에서 살리실산 경엽처리가 고추의 생육, 광합성 특성 및 항산화효소 활성에 미치는 영향을 구명 하고자 하였다. 광합성 특성 측정결과 광합성 속도, 기공전도 도 및 증산 속도가 증가하였고, 3회차 처리에서 가장 높았다. 세포내 MDA와 H2O2 함량은 살리실산 3회차 처리에서 현저 하게 감소하는 경향을 보였다. APX, CAT, POD 및 SOD 활 성이 현저하게 증가하였으며, 무처리 대비 최대 247, 318, 55 및 54% 증가하였다. 고추의 생육 특성은 무처리구와 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았으나, 상품 수량은 15% 정도 증가하였다. 이러한 결과들을 종합해 볼 때, 살리실산의 경엽처리는 고추 의 광합성 특성과 항산화효소 활성을 증진시켜 고온･건조 스트 레스에 의한 피해 경감에 긍정적 효과를 유발함을 확인하였다