Page 42 - index

2024 ‫מועד סתיו‬ - 41 - ‫ פרק ראשון‬- ‫אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) Human history is replete with figures who foretell future events, from the
soothsayers and oracles of the ancient world to present-day clairvoyants and fortune-
tellers. One of the most riveting of these is Nostradamus, a sixteenth-century physician
who has been both hailed as a veritable prophet and condemned as a fraud.

(5) In 1547, Nostradamus began making predictions about the future, which he
collected in a book called The Prophecies (often referred to as The Centuries). Rarely
out of print since its publication in 1555, the book consists of rhymed four-line verses
called quatrains, each purporting to foretell some world event far in the future. The
predictions themselves are vague, even cryptic. They include few dates or names and

(10) are not arranged in chronological order. Nostradamus claimed they were based on
divine inspiration, meditation, and the movements of the stars and planets, and that their
meaning would become clear in time.

Retrospective interpretation of the prophecies has led enthusiasts to credit
Nostradamus with foretelling such momentous events as the French Revolution, both

(15) world wars, and the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Most
academic sources, however, claim that Nostradamus deliberately wrote his quatrains in
imprecise language so that they could be given a number of meanings in years to come.
They also point out that predictions of death, war, and natural disasters – all of which
inevitably occur over the course of history – are hardly a testimony to Nostradamus's

(20) prophetic powers.

Questions

18. An appropriate title for this text would be -

(1) The Fascinating Phenomenon of Prophecy
(2) Cryptic Quatrains: The Nostradamus Debate
(3) The Prophecies: A Window into the Future
(4) The Life and Works of Nostradamus

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