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2015 ‫מועד ספטמבר‬ - 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) Cats are the most common house pets in the world. They are popular not only
because of their beauty and charm, but also because they need less care and attention
than some other pets. Many people keep cats because they chase away mice, rats, and
other small animals, a behavior carried over from the days when all cats were wild.

(5) The modern house cat probably evolved from the wild North African species Felis
silvestris libyca. Over time, wild cats wandered into human settlements looking for
food, and people began to take care of them. The earliest evidence of this is an
Egyptian tomb dating back to 1900 BCE, which was found to contain the bones of
several cats along with little pots for milk. Paintings of family life from around 1600

(10) BCE include cats, indicating that they were, by that time, considered household pets.
Eventually, cats were brought to Greece and Rome and then to India, the Far East, and
the Americas.

Cats have not always been loved, however. In medieval Europe, for example, they
were feared and hated by people who believed that cats were evil and had magical

(15) powers. Hundreds of thousands of cats were killed along with their owners, who were
suspected of practicing witchcraft. By the fourteenth century, there were few cats left in
the streets of Europe's towns and cities. As a result, rats ran about freely, spreading
deadly diseases such as the Black Plague, which caused the deaths of twenty-five
million people.

Questions

13. A good title for the text is -

(1) The Beauty and Charm of Cats
(2) Cats of the Middle East and Europe
(3) Cats: Beloved House Pets or Evil Animals?
(4) Cats: A Short History

)‫© 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