Page 42 - index

2018 ‫מועד קיץ‬ - 41 - ‫ פרק ראשו ן‬- ‫ אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) When 16th-century Spanish explorers came to the New World, they were enthralled
by a fast-paced and sometimes bloody sport. Teams of up to six athletes would use their
elbows, knees and hips – anything but their hands or feet – to whack heavy, solid balls
through hoops hung several meters above stone courts. What most astonished the Spanish

(5) were the ricocheting balls. As Pedro Martyr, the official historian of the Spanish court,
wrote in 1530: "I do not understand how, when they hit the ground, they are sent into
the air with incredible bounce." For Europeans, accustomed to pigskin balls with no
bounce at all, the rubber balls seemed almost miraculous.

The game that the Spaniards saw, known as chaah, had been played by the Maya,
(10) Aztec and Olmec peoples for thousands of years. Far more than a mere sport, the game

was a Mesoamerican ritual of great religious significance. The ball symbolized the sun;
by making the ball bounce across the court, players were reenacting the creation of the
world and helping to perpetuate the cosmic order.

According to Martyr's writings, the Mesoamericans made their seemingly magical
(15) material by collecting sap from lowland trees and mixing it with juice from the morning

glory vines that grew on them. Only now have scientists begun to understand the
chemical process by which this mixture produces rubber. "It's a marvelous example of
technology, demonstrated at an amazingly early stage," says Frank Bates, a chemist at
the University of Minnesota. Archeologist Dorothy Hosler of the Massachusetts
(20) Institute of Technology agrees. In her view, "Studying ancient rubbermaking teaches us
that these people were extremely conscious of their environment and that they
manipulated it with great success."

Questions

18. The main purpose of the text is to discuss -

(1) recent studies of rubbermaking in ancient Mesoamerica
(2) the chemical processes that the Maya, Aztec and Olmec peoples used to make

rubber
(3) the experiences of 16th-century Spanish explorers in the New World
(4) an ancient ball game and the rubber used to make the balls

)‫© 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