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2014 ‫מועד פברואר‬ - 49 - ‫ פרק שנ י‬- ‫ אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) America's bridges are in desperate need of extensive repair. Of the roughly half a
million bridges in the United States, more than 200,000 are defective. Some are merely
obsolete, having been built in a time of smaller vehicles and narrower roads, but the rest
– as a result of faulty construction or poor maintenance – are incapable of sustaining

(5) the loads they were intended to support. About 5,000 bridges have already been closed,
and more than 130,000 bear signs that limit the weight of vehicles allowed to drive over
them. Every year, between 150 and 200 bridges suffer partial or complete collapse.

The need to repair all defective bridges is a matter of great concern. Current
estimates of the cost of doing so start at about 90 billion dollars. However, if the
(10) problem is to be solved in a definitive manner which would eliminate the need for

expensive emergency repairs in the future, then some basic questions must first be
answered, such as: What kinds of bridges are most likely to be defective? Why are
bridges allowed to reach such an advanced state of disrepair? How can the extent of the
danger posed by deteriorating bridges be determined?

(15) An analysis of information from the National Bridge Inventory, a data base
maintained by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), shows that some common
perceptions about the state of America's bridges are wrong. Large urban bridges are
generally regarded as being in the worst condition. In fact, defects are most commonly

found in short bridges, which should be simple to maintain. Another misperception
(20) results from the fact that bridge work on major highways is highly visible and gives the

impression that the defects occur more frequently along heavily traveled routes. In
reality, a vast number of unnoticed defective bridges lie along sparsely traveled back
roads.

Questions

18. The main purpose of the text is to -

(1) emphasize the importance of bridges in the American highway system
(2) discuss the current state of bridges in the United States
(3) suggest ways for improving bridge construction and maintenance
(4) warn people of the dangers posed by defective bridges

19. In the first paragraph, the author mentions the numbers 200,000, 5,000 and 130,000 to

emphasize -

(1) the great number of bridges which have recently been repaired
(2) that more and more bridges are required in the United States today
(3) that an increasing number of bridges are collapsing each year
(4) the extent of the problem of defective bridges in the United States

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