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2014 ‫מועד פברואר‬ - 39 - ‫ 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 13-17)

(1) William Shakespeare is commonly regarded as the supreme genius of English
literature. He is admired not only for the great variety of poems and plays that he wrote,
but also for the unique way in which he used dramatic speech in his works.

While Shakespeare's works have been studied for centuries, very little is actually
(5) known about his life. He is thought to have been born on April 23, 1564, but some doubt

exists about this. His father was a merchant in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon.
William was supposedly educated there, but there are no records to prove this. Indeed,
our knowledge of the first thirty years of his life contains huge gaps which no one has
been able to fill. One thing that is known for certain is that by 1594 he was established
(10) in London as an actor and a playwright, and was a member of a group called the King's
Men. By 1597, he had evidently managed to earn a great deal of money, for he was able
to buy one of the largest houses in Stratford – "New Place" – to which he retired in 1610.

Shakespeare's principal works were plays, and these can be divided into four
categories: tragedies, such as Hamlet; comedies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream;

(15) histories, such as Henry V; and romances, such as The Tempest. Shakespeare gathered
material for his plays from a wide variety of sources. For the histories, he often used
The Chronicles of Holinshed – an interesting but not very reliable sixteenth-century
historical text. Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome was
probably obtained by reading the work of authors such as the Greek biographer Plutarch.

(20) This knowledge, revealed in plays such as Antony and Cleopatra, has long impressed
scholars.

For nearly four centuries, Shakespeare's works have been a source of fascination for

scholars. Thousands of books have been written about his poems and plays, many trying
to explain the meaning of the symbols and images he used. Shakespeare would probably
(25) have been amused to know that so much interest has been shown in his work, which he
regarded as merely average.

Questions

13. "William Shakespeare . . . literature" (lines 1-2) means that -

(1) Shakespeare was the first famous English poet and playwright
(2) more English literature was written by Shakespeare than by any other writer
(3) Shakespeare wished to be regarded by others as an English genius
(4) many people agree that Shakespeare was the greatest English writer

)‫© כל הזכויות שמורות למרכז ארצי לבחינות ולהערכה (ע"ר‬

.‫ 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