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2014 ‫מועד דצמבר‬ - 49 - ‫ פרק שנ י‬- ‫ אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) Many city dwellers in Western countries associate rats and other rodents with farms,
poor neighborhoods and plague-ridden medieval towns, not with clean, modern
neighborhoods. Unfortunately, their assumptions about where rats and mice are found
may be unjustified. According to recent reports, these animals are multiplying rapidly

(5) in all urban areas, including city parks and commercial centers, and new medical
evidence suggests that modern city dwellers are more threatened by rodent-borne
diseases than they realize.

Many of the diseases that humans contract from rodents are never diagnosed. They
often begin with influenza-like symptoms, and people may recover from these diseases

(10) without ever realizing that they were caused by rats or mice. But if the symptoms
persist and remain untreated, the resulting illnesses are often severe or even fatal. One
such illness is leptospirosis, which, according to Joe Vinetz, a doctor at the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, is the most common unrecognized rat-borne
disease in the United States. This illness is fatal in ten percent of cases.

(15) In order to reduce the incidence of such diseases, rodent populations must be
controlled. This, however, is no easy task. Rodents reproduce so rapidly that it is almost
impossible – regardless of the method employed – to limit their numbers effectively.
For example, female brown rats first mate at the age of two or three months. Under

optimal conditions, they give birth to approximately ten pups at a time, often producing
(20) six to eight litters a year. Given such rates of reproduction, it is no wonder that the

world's major cities are becoming increasingly rat-infested. It seems that people should
be more concerned than they are about the threat posed to human health by rodent-
borne diseases.

Questions

18. The main purpose of the text is to -

(1) describe several methods of rodent control and explain why none of them is
effective

(2) describe the symptoms of rodent-borne diseases and warn readers of their fatal
effects

(3) discuss why people in Western countries have changed their attitudes towards
rodents over the past few years

(4) discuss the rapid increase in the number of rodents in urban areas and the threat this
poses to human health

)‫© 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