Computer Awareness Mixed Quiz: Set 1

The correct answer is B, Charles Babbage. He designed the Difference Engine and then the Analytical Engine, and the Analytical Engine contained the logical parts of a modern computer: a store for holding numbers, a mill for calculating, punched-card input and a printed output. He never finished building it, but the design is the reason he carries the title.

Option A, Blaise Pascal, built the Pascaline in 1642, the first mechanical adding machine, so he belongs to the earlier age of calculators rather than computers. Option C, Alan Turing, gave the theory of computation and the Turing machine and is called the father of computer science and of artificial intelligence, which is a different title from the one asked here. Option D, Herman Hollerith, built the punched-card tabulating machine used for the American census and founded the firm that later became IBM. Examiners rotate these four names in the options, so fix one phrase to each.

The correct answer is C, touchscreen. A touchscreen accepts a finger tap or a stylus stroke as input and displays the result on the very same surface, so the one piece of hardware performs both jobs. The modem, the network interface card and the hard disk belong to the same dual-role list.

Option A, the scanner, only reads a document or a photograph and feeds the image into the computer, which makes it a pure input device. Option B, the plotter, only draws the output the computer sends it and can take nothing back, so it is a pure output device. Option D, the light pen, is a photo-sensitive pointing device that selects an item by touching the screen, but the display it touches is a separate output device, so the pen itself is input only. Paper setters use exactly these three distractors, so remember the short dual-role list rather than reasoning about each option in the hall.

The correct answer is A, SRAM. Static RAM stores each bit in a flip-flop circuit made of several transistors, usually six, so the bit stays put as long as the power is on and never needs refreshing. That makes SRAM very fast, but also costly and bulky, so it is used in small amounts as cache memory inside the processor. Both kinds of RAM are volatile and lose their data when the power goes off. B is wrong because DRAM stores each bit as a charge in a tiny capacitor that slowly leaks, so it must be refreshed every few milliseconds; it is cheaper and denser, and serves as the main memory. C is wrong because flash memory is non-volatile storage used in pen drives, memory cards and SSDs, and it is slower than RAM. D is wrong because ROM is read-only, non-volatile memory that holds start-up instructions, not a type of RAM. Exam tip: SRAM = static, fast, no refresh, used as cache; DRAM = dynamic, needs refresh, used as main memory.

The correct answer is B, Operating system. Ubuntu is a free, open-source operating system built on the Linux kernel and based on the Debian distribution. It was first released in 2004 by Canonical, and its name comes from a Nguni Bantu word of southern Africa meaning humanity towards others. An operating system is the master software that starts the machine and manages its memory, files, processor time and devices; Ubuntu does this job on desktops, laptops, servers and cloud machines, and is popular because it costs nothing and its source code is open. A is wrong because malware means harmful software such as viruses, worms and ransomware. C is wrong because an external hard drive is a piece of hardware used to store data outside the computer. D is wrong because a web browser is an application like Chrome, Firefox or Edge that opens web pages. Exam tip: common Linux distributions are Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and Red Hat; Windows, macOS and Android are other operating systems.

The correct answer is B, Change Case. In MS-Word 2016 the button marked 'Aa' in the Font group of the Home tab opens the Change Case menu, which rewrites the selected text without retyping it. Its five choices are Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word and tOGGLE cASE, and the keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 moves the selection through the main cases one after another. A is wrong because Text Effects and Typography is the blue glowing 'A' that adds shadow, reflection and outline to text. C is wrong because Clear All Formatting is the 'A' with a small eraser, which strips the text back to plain formatting. D is wrong because Strikethrough is shown as 'abc' with a line drawn through it and simply crosses out the text. Exam tip: in the Font group remember Shift + F3 for change case, Ctrl + B for bold, Ctrl + I for italic and Ctrl + U for underline.

The correct answer is A, F5. In Microsoft PowerPoint, pressing F5 starts the slide show from the first slide, whichever slide you are working on at that moment. The same command sits on the Slide Show tab as 'From Beginning'. Its close partner is Shift + F5, which starts the show from the current slide, and paper setters like to place the two side by side. During the show, Esc ends the presentation, and pressing B or the full stop key turns the screen black until you press it again. B is wrong because Alt + Tab switches between open windows in Windows. C is wrong because Ctrl + P opens the Print option in almost every Office program. D is wrong because Shift + F5 begins the show from the current slide, not from the beginning. Exam tip: F5 = start from the beginning, Shift + F5 = start from the current slide, Esc = end the show.

The correct answer is C, HTTP. HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and it is the set of rules by which a browser asks a web server for a page and the server sends it back, which is how data on the World Wide Web is reached. It was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, who also created the World Wide Web in 1989, and it works on port 80, while its secure form HTTPS uses encryption and port 443. A is wrong because DNS, the Domain Name System, only turns a name such as gk24.in into the numeric IP address of the server. B is wrong because SNMP, the Simple Network Management Protocol, is used by administrators to watch and manage routers, switches and other network devices. D is wrong because FTP, the File Transfer Protocol, moves whole files between a computer and a server rather than serving web pages. Exam tip: HTTP for web pages, FTP for file transfer, SMTP to send mail, POP3 and IMAP to receive it.

The correct answer is C, Local Area Network. A LAN joins computers and devices inside a small area such as one room, one building or a campus. It usually runs on Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi, is owned and managed by a single organisation, and gives a high data transfer rate with very few errors, which is why offices, schools and cyber cafes use it. Networks are classed by the area they cover: PAN for one person's own devices, LAN for a building, MAN for a city and WAN for a country or the world, the internet being the largest WAN. Option A is wrong because 'Line Area Network' is not a networking term. Option B is wrong because no class of network is called a 'Linear Area Network'. Option D is wrong because 'Land Area Network' does not exist either. Exam tip: learn the four by rising size — PAN, LAN, MAN, WAN — and remember the LAN is the one limited to a single building or campus.

The correct answer is B, 010010. The 2's complement of a binary number is found in two steps: flip every bit to get the 1's complement, then add 1. Flipping 101110 gives 010001, and 010001 + 1 = 010010. A quick check confirms it: 101110 is 46 and 010010 is 18, and 46 + 18 = 64, which is 2⁶ for a six-bit number, exactly as it should be. Computers use the 2's complement to store negative numbers and to do subtraction by addition, which keeps their circuits simple. A shortcut also works: copy the bits from the right up to and including the first 1, then flip all the rest. A is wrong because 010011 adds 2 instead of 1 to the 1's complement. C is wrong because 110001 leaves the leftmost bit unflipped. D is wrong because 010001 is only the 1's complement; the final +1 is missing. Exam tip: 2's complement = flip all bits, then add 1; a number plus its 2's complement equals 2ⁿ.

The correct answer is B, To prevent unauthorised access to a private network. A firewall stands between a trusted private network and an untrusted one such as the internet, and checks the data going in and out. Traffic that matches its security rules is allowed and the rest is blocked, much like a guard at a gate. It can be hardware, such as a separate device or a feature of a router, or software, such as the firewall built into Windows. The name comes from the fire-resistant walls in buildings that stop a fire from spreading from one part to another. A is wrong because a firewall does not make the connection faster; checking traffic can even slow it slightly. C is wrong because finding and removing viruses is the job of antivirus software, which works on files already on a computer. D is wrong because storing passwords safely is the work of a password manager. Exam tip: firewall = gatekeeper of network traffic; antivirus = cleaner of infected files.

The correct answer is A, the first generation. Machines such as ENIAC, EDVAC and UNIVAC-I ran on thousands of vacuum tubes, which made them enormous, power-hungry and dependent on constant cooling. They were programmed in machine language and used punched cards for input and magnetic drums for storage.

Option B, the second generation, replaced the tube with the transistor invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947, which cut the size and heat sharply and allowed assembly language and the first high-level languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN. Option C, the third generation, is defined by the integrated circuit demonstrated by Jack Kilby in 1958, and brought the keyboard, the monitor and the operating system. Option D, the fourth generation, begins with the microprocessor and very large scale integration, the Intel 4004 of 1971 being the first commercial one. Learn the chain tube, transistor, integrated circuit, microprocessor in order.

The correct answer is A, Douglas Engelbart. He built the first mouse, a small wooden box with a pair of wheels underneath, at the Stanford Research Institute, and the patent describes it as an X-Y position indicator for a display system. The name stuck because the wire coming out of the back looked like a tail.

Option B, Charles Babbage, designed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine in the nineteenth century and is called the Father of the Computer, a completely different title. Option C, Jack Kilby, demonstrated the first integrated circuit and belongs to the generations chapter, not to input devices. Option D, Christopher Latham Sholes, perfected the mechanical typewriter and gave us the QWERTY keyboard layout, so he is the right answer to a keyboard question and a tempting wrong one here. Keep one invention fixed against each name.

The correct answer is C, Memory Card. A memory card keeps data in flash memory, a semiconductor chip with no moving parts, so it is solid-state storage and not magnetic. The data sits as trapped charge in floating-gate transistors, which is why SD cards, pen drives and solid-state drives are fast, silent and able to take a knock. Magnetic storage works quite differently: it records data as patterns of magnetised spots on a coated surface that a read-write head passes over. Option A is wrong because the Winchester disk is the early IBM name for the sealed hard disk drive, which is magnetic. Option B is wrong because a floppy drive writes on a thin magnetic plastic disc. Option D is wrong because magnetic tape, still used for archives and backups, is a plastic ribbon with a magnetic coating. Exam tip: sort storage by how it records — magnetic (hard disk, floppy, tape), optical (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) and solid-state or flash (memory card, pen drive, SSD).

The correct answer is C, To manage hardware and software resources. An operating system is the system software that loads when a laptop starts and then runs the machine: it shares out memory, decides which program gets the processor and for how long, keeps files and folders in order on the disk, talks to the keyboard, screen and printer through device drivers, and gives the user an interface. Every other program, from a word processor to a game, runs on top of it and asks it for whatever it needs. Windows, macOS, Linux, Ubuntu and Android are common examples. A is wrong because typing documents is the work of an application such as MS-Word. B is wrong because a browser is only one of many programs the operating system supports, not its purpose. D is wrong because video editing is done by application software such as a video editor. Exam tip: an operating system is system software and works as the bridge between the user, the applications and the hardware.

The correct answer is C, Bell Laboratories. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley demonstrated the transistor there in 1947, and the three shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for it. Because a transistor did the work of a vacuum tube while being far smaller, cooler and more reliable, it became the defining component of the second generation of computers.

Option A, Texas Instruments, is where Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit in 1958, which belongs to the third generation, so it is the classic trap in this question. Option B, Intel Corporation, was founded much later and released the Intel 4004 microprocessor in 1971, opening the fourth generation. Option D, IBM Research, produced important second and third generation machines such as the IBM 1401 and the System 360, but it did not invent the transistor. Keep the pairs fixed: transistor with Bell Labs, integrated circuit with Texas Instruments, microprocessor with Intel.

The correct answer is C, dot matrix printer. Its print head carries a column of tiny pins that strike an inked ribbon against the paper, forming each character out of dots. Because the strike passes through the paper, a dot matrix printer can print carbon copies in one go, and it is noisy for the same reason.

Option A, the laser printer, uses a laser beam, a photosensitive drum and dry toner fused by heat, and nothing ever strikes the page. Option B, the inkjet, sprays extremely fine droplets of liquid ink onto the paper without contact. Option D, the thermal printer, heats chemically treated paper so that the characters appear, which again involves no impact. All three are non-impact printers. The one-line rule for the exam is that only the dot matrix, the daisy wheel and the line printers strike the paper.

The correct answer is D, UNIVAC-I, the Universal Automatic Computer. It was the first electronic computer built to be sold to customers rather than used only in a laboratory, and it was famously put to work on census and business data processing. It belongs to the first generation and used vacuum tubes.

Option A, ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was built by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and is remembered as one of the first general-purpose electronic computers, but it was a one-off machine and not a commercial product. Option B, EDVAC, was its successor and is remembered for putting the stored program idea into practice. Option C, the Harvard Mark I, was an electro-mechanical machine driven by relays rather than a fully electronic computer. Papers deliberately place ENIAC first in the list, so read the word commercially with care.

The correct answer is A, processing of bank cheques. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. The line of characters printed along the foot of a cheque is set in magnetic ink in the E-13B font, and the reader identifies each character from its magnetic signal, so the cheque is sorted correctly even when it has been folded, stamped or soiled.

Option B, reading objective answer sheets, is the work of OMR, the Optical Mark Reader, which simply detects whether a mark has been made in a fixed position. Option C, billing at a retail counter, is done by a barcode reader that decodes the bar pattern printed on the packet. Option D, recording fingerprints, is the work of a biometric scanner. Banking papers return to MICR every year, so tie it firmly to the cheque and to the E-13B font.

The correct answer is B, 1971. The Intel 4004 placed an entire processing unit on a single chip for the first time in a commercial product, and that step marks the beginning of the fourth generation of computers, built on very large scale integration. Everything that followed, including the personal computer, rests on it.

Option A, 1964, is the year of the IBM System 360, a landmark third-generation machine built on integrated circuits, which is why the year appears as a distractor. Option C, 1975, is associated with the early hobby computers of the microprocessor era but not with the 4004 itself. Option D, 1981, is the year the IBM Personal Computer was launched, a fourth-generation product rather than the first microprocessor. The safe way to remember the chain is 1947 transistor, 1958 integrated circuit, 1971 microprocessor.

The correct answer is B, pixel. The word is a contraction of picture element. A screen image is a grid of these points, and the number of them across and down the screen is what is quoted as the resolution of the monitor, so a higher pixel count means a finer picture.

Option A, the bit, is the smallest unit of data, a single binary digit, not a unit of a picture, and eight of them make a byte. Option C, the byte, is the unit in which memory and file sizes are measured. Option D, dot pitch, is a real term from the same chapter but it means something else: it is the distance between two neighbouring dots of the same colour on the screen, measured in millimetres, and a smaller dot pitch gives a sharper display. Examiners like to place pixel and dot pitch in the same set of options, so read the stem carefully.