Page 42 - Index

2023 ‫מועד חורף‬ - 41 - ‫ פרק ראשון‬- ‫אנגלית‬

Text II (Questions 18-22)

(1) Science fiction writers have superb imaginations. They transport us to parallel
universes and offer startling visions of what the future might hold. But just how
accurate have the fantasies of writers turned out to be?

Many depictions of futuristic inventions that appear in works of science fiction were
(5) remarkably accurate in anticipating technological developments. In his 1865 novel

From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne envisioned a flight into space. Using his
knowledge of engineering, he described, among other things, a "moon gun", similar in
principle to the rockets that launched spaceships to the moon a century later. Edward
Bellamy, in his 1888 novel Looking Backward, wrote of people using something akin to
(10) today's debit cards instead of money. In George Orwell's novel 1984, published in
1949, the ability of the all-controlling dictator to track citizens' every movement
foreshadowed the 24-hour surveillance capabilities available today. Other innovations
that have become features of everyday life – such as iPads, cell phones, smartwatches,
and the internet – were all described long ago in one form or another in works of
(15) science fiction.

Clearly, not everything concocted by science fiction writers has become reality.
Time travel, cities on other planets, and robot rebellions remain for the time being in the
realm of imagination. For science fiction writers, however, accuracy is not necessarily
the point. As author Larry Niven explains, their aim is to imagine all possibilities. This,

(20) he notes, is not the same as attempting to predict the future.

Questions

18. The main purpose of the text is to -

(1) examine the place of science fiction in literature
(2) compare the works of several well-known science fiction authors
(3) discuss how accurate the depictions of science fiction writers have been
(4) present some important features of science fiction

)‫© 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