Page 38 - index

2012 ‫מועד פברואר‬ - 37 - ‫ פרק ראשון‬- ‫ אנגלית‬

Reading Comprehension

This part consists of two passages, each followed by several related questions. For each
question, choose the most appropriate answer based on the text.

Text I (Questions 18-22)

(1) Certain elements of Japanese culture – sushi, karate and karaoke, to name just a
few – have become popular in many countries around the world. But how many
Westerners have heard of shogi? This Japanese board game, which is often compared to
chess, is drawing increasing attention outside of Japan and may soon join the list of

(5) popular Japanese cultural exports.

Shogi, which originated in the eighth century, is a game for two, played on a board
of 81 squares. Each player has twenty pieces; the object is to capture the other player's
king. The main difference between shogi and chess is that in shogi, pieces are never
removed from the board. When a player captures an opponent's piece, he is entitled to

(10) use it as his own. This is what makes shogi so complicated and fascinating. It is also
why, according to experts, professional shogi players – unlike chess champions – have
never been defeated by computers.

In Japan, shogi is more popular than many sports. Most newspapers publish a daily
column on shogi for the country's estimated 20 million shogi fans. There are at least

(15) 150 professional shogi players. A top-ranked shogi professional, called a nine dan, can
earn the equivalent of one million dollars a year.

Increasingly, people outside Japan – especially expert chess players – are being
drawn to the challenge of shogi. When shogi champion Teruichi Aono visited England
in 1979 to teach the game to a small group there, he found almost no shogi players. By

(20) 1993, the Japanese Shogi Association had fourteen overseas branches, with a total of
500 members. As of 2001, the number of branches had grown to thirty, with a total of
more than 2000 members. And there is every indication that shogi's popularity is
continuing to grow.

Questions

18. The first paragraph lists several -

(1) Japanese cultural exports that are popular around the world
(2) reasons why Japanese culture is so influential in different countries
(3) ways in which the game of shogi is similar to the game of chess
(4) elements of Japanese culture that are more popular in the West than in Japan

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.‫ בלא אישור בכתב מהמרכז הארצי לבחינות ולהערכה‬- ‫ כולה או חלקים ממנה‬- ‫ או ללמדה‬,‫אין להעתיק או להפיץ בחינה זו או קטעים ממנה בכל צורה ובכל אמצעי‬