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2016 ‫מועד דצמבר‬ - 49 - ‫ פרק שנ י‬- ‫ אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) The haunting song of the humpback whale is one of nature's mysteries. Although
likely heard by sailors for centuries, humpback songs were first recorded by U.S. Navy
ships in the late 1950s off the coasts of Hawaii and Bermuda. Since then, scientists
have been studying these complex sequences of moans, howls, and cries in order to

(5) decipher their meaning.

Research has determined that the song of the humpback whale is constantly
evolving. Each year, different sounds are joined together to create new sequences. As
these are slowly incorporated into the existing song, some older patterns are lost
completely. Thus, the song of a given whale population recorded in the 1970s bears

(10) almost no resemblance to the song sung by the same population in the 1960s.

Despite the constantly changing nature of the song, all singers in the same ocean
sing essentially the same version at any one time, though they may be separated by
thousands of kilometers. Songs differ, however, from one ocean to another. Humpback
whales in the Pacific, for instance, have a different song than humpback whales in the

(15) Atlantic.

Why humpback whales sing remains an intriguing and complex question. There are
several hypotheses about the function of the whales' song. The dominant one is that the
song is primarily a display males put on to attract females. Others interpret the song as
either a migratory signal that helps humpbacks navigate the oceans or a form of

(20) sonar that enables males to locate females.

Questions

18. An appropriate title for this text would be -

(1) Humpback Whale Populations: Communicating Across Oceans
(2) Moans, Howls, and Cries: Why the Humpback Whale Sings
(3) Sailors vs. Scientists: Myths and Facts About Humpback Whales
(4) The Song of the Humpback Whale: What We Do and Do Not Know

19. In line 7, "sequences" could best be replaced by -

(1) recordings
(2) patterns
(3) resemblances
(4) meanings

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