Page 40 - index

2022 ‫מועד קיץ‬ - 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) One of the most important battles of World War II was fought not on the battlefield,
but at a place called Bletchley Park in the quiet English countryside. There,
cryptologists worked around the clock to break the secret codes used by the German
army. The Germans believed that these codes, produced by a complex code-making

(5) device called the Enigma machine, were impossible to decrypt. In this, they were
gravely mistaken: Britain managed to crack the first of these codes in the early stages
of the war.

Still, knowing how to do something is no guarantee of being able to do it under
pressure. Because the Enigma's code was reset every twenty-four hours, the Bletchley

(10) team found itself in a desperate race against time every single night. Sometimes it took
all night and most of the following day to crack the code, leaving only a few hours in
which to gather information before the code was changed again.

Almost ten thousand people worked together at Bletchley. In addition to
outstanding mathematicians and expert cryptologists, the British military recruited a

(15) host of linguists, chess masters, artists, and crossword puzzle whizzes, training them in
the mysteries of coding and decoding. These men and women, who spent hours at a
time deciphering pages of seemingly meaningless signs and symbols, were vital to the
war effort. Some historians maintain that they shortened the war by as much as two

years.

Questions

13. The main purpose of this text is to -

(1) discuss some of World War II's most famous battles
(2) explain the role of the Enigma in World War II
(3) present an important part of the British war effort
(4) describe how military information is gathered

)‫© 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