Page 40 - index

2023 ‫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) On the streets of Mumbai, India, on any business day, some 5,000 men weave their
way on foot or on bicycle through the city's dense traffic, each carrying 30 or more
metal lunch boxes. These lunch boxes are called dabbas and the men who transport
them are known as dabbawalas. A dabba has two, three, or four tiers, each of which

(5) contains one element of a meal: rice, curried vegetables, naan bread, etc. Every day,
dabbawalas deliver almost 200,000 home-cooked lunches from people's homes to their
places of employment in the city.

The dabbawala network started in 1890, when a Mumbai banker decided he wanted
a meal cooked in his own kitchen to be delivered to his office at lunchtime. He hired

(10) the first ever dabbawala, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche, to bring the meal to him. The
banker's co-workers, envious of his freshly cooked, promptly delivered lunches, soon
requested Bachche's services as well. Unable to keep up with demand, Bachche
enlisted his friends and relatives to assist in deliveries. The idea caught on from there.

Today the dabbawalas have a well-oiled system. In mid-morning, they pick up
(15) dabbas from their customers' homes. The dabbas are labeled using hand-painted

symbols and colors to denote the address to which each dabba is to be delivered and to
which it should be returned. Each dabbawala takes his boxes to the nearest train station,
where they are sorted and loaded onto trains according to their destination. When they
arrive, the dabbas are unloaded, sorted again, and assigned to another dabbawala, who
(20) delivers them to the customers in time for lunch. After lunchtime, the dabbawalas
reverse the process, picking up the empty dabbas and bringing them back to customers'
homes.

Despite their old-fashioned methods, the dabbawalas can teach high-tech delivery
services a thing or two. They seldom fail to deliver a meal on time. According to a

(25) 2010 study by Harvard Business School, the dabbawalas make fewer than 3.4 errors per
million transactions. It is no wonder, then, that executives from industry giants such as
Amazon and FedEx have spent time studying the secrets of the dabbawalas' success.

Questions Mumbai.

13. The main purpose of the text is to discuss

(1) a remarkable food delivery network in
(2) the traditional food culture of
(3) the complex transportation system of
(4) business opportunities in

)‫© 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