Computer Awareness Mixed Quiz: Set 19

The correct answer is B, interpreter. An interpreter reads one statement of the source program, translates it and executes it immediately before moving to the next, so it stops at the first error it meets and tells the programmer about that error alone; this makes it convenient for learning and for testing small pieces of code, though execution is slower because translation happens every time the program runs. Option A is wrong because a compiler translates the entire program in one pass, lists all the errors together and produces an object file that runs quickly thereafter. Option C is wrong because an assembler is a special translator that converts assembly language, a second-generation language, into machine code. Option D is wrong because a loader does no translation at all; it merely places the ready executable program into main memory so that the processor can start it. BASIC and Python are the standard examples of interpreted languages.

The correct answer is B, Datasheet. In a database such as Microsoft Access, the view that shows a table as rows and columns, looking like a spreadsheet grid, is called Datasheet view. Each row of that grid is one record and each column is one field, and the names along the top come from the field names set in Design view. Datasheet view lets you type data straight in, sort it, filter it and widen columns, while Design view is where the data type, field size and primary key are fixed. Queries and forms can also be opened in Datasheet view, so the name belongs to the display format, not to one object. Option A is wrong because a record is a single row of the grid, one complete entry, not the grid itself. Option C is wrong because a query is a saved question that pulls out selected rows; it is a database object. Option D is wrong because 'Tables' names the objects being displayed, while the question asks what the grid-like view is called. Exam tip: Access tables have two main views — Datasheet for data, Design for structure.

The correct answer is C, the first statement is true and the second false. When a new document is created in MS Word, the program offers a blank document as well as a gallery of templates for letters, resumes and reports, so statement one is correct. Statement two is wrong because Shift + End selects the text from the cursor to the end of the current line; the shortcut that takes the cursor to the end of the whole document is Ctrl + End. Option A is wrong because it denies the true statement about templates. Option B is wrong because it accepts the incorrect shortcut. Option D reverses both judgements and is therefore wrong twice over. In statement based questions of this kind, test each statement separately and only then look at the options.

The correct answer is C, Graphics. In multimedia, graphics is the broad word for every kind of visual element a computer can store and show, so drawings, photographs, movies and simulations all sit inside it. The usual list of multimedia elements is text, graphics, audio, video and animation, and in that list graphics covers both pictures made by hand on the screen and pictures captured from the real world. Graphics are stored either as bitmaps, made of pixels, as in a JPEG or BMP photograph, or as vectors, made of lines and curves described by equations, as in a drawing or a CAD file. A is wrong because animation is only one kind of visual, a sequence of frames shown fast enough to look like movement. B is wrong because an image is a single still picture, so it is narrower than the four things listed. D is wrong because text is made of characters and carries no picture. Exam tip: multimedia elements are text, graphics, audio, video and animation; bitmap graphics use pixels, vector graphics use equations.

The correct answer is C, long double. Java has exactly eight primitive data types, namely byte, short, int, long, float, double, char and boolean, and long double is not among them; it belongs to C and C++, where it denotes an extended precision floating point number, so the option is a deliberate trap for candidates who have learnt C first. Option A is wrong as an answer because short is a genuine Java primitive, a sixteen-bit signed integer. Option B is wrong because long is also genuine, a sixty-four-bit signed integer used when int is too small. Option D is wrong because boolean is a primitive that holds only the two values true and false and is the type of every condition in Java. A useful way to hold the eight in mind is to group them: four integer types, two floating point types, one character type and one logical type.

The correct answer is B, Meta Search Engine. A meta search engine keeps no index of its own. It hands the user's query to several other search engines at the same time, collects what they send back, removes repeated hits and shows one merged list. Because it borrows from many sources, a single search covers more of the web than any one engine would on its own. Dogpile and Startpage work in this way. A is wrong because advanced search only means the extra filters an ordinary engine offers, such as date, file type or exact phrase, while it still searches its own index. C is wrong because search tool is a loose term for any utility that finds files or text, not a defined class of engine. D is wrong because Boolean searching refers to using AND, OR and NOT inside one engine, not to querying other engines. Exam tip: meta means about, so a meta search engine searches the searchers.

The correct answer is B, Ctrl + Z. This combination reverses the last action, whether it was typing, deleting, formatting or moving, and pressing it again walks further back through the list of recent actions. Option A is wrong because Ctrl + U applies underline to the selected text in a word processor. Option C is wrong because Ctrl + Y does the opposite of undo: it redoes the action that was just undone, and the pair Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y is usually asked together. Option D is wrong because Ctrl + X cuts the selection and places it on the clipboard, from where Ctrl + V pastes it. The four combinations Ctrl + C, Ctrl + X, Ctrl + V and Ctrl + Z form the core of every computer awareness paper and should be answered without a moment of thought.

The correct answer is A, HREF. The href attribute of the anchor tag carries the address the browser should open when the link is clicked, so href alone decides where a link leads. The text written between the opening and closing anchor tags is what the reader sees and clicks. The value of href can be a full web address, a path to another file on the same site, or a point inside the same page written after a hash. B is wrong because src supplies the source file for images, scripts and iframes, not for links. C is wrong because link is a separate element placed in the head section to attach stylesheets; it is not an attribute of the anchor tag. D is wrong because HYPERLINK is not an HTML attribute at all, it is the name of a spreadsheet function. Exam tip: remember the pair — href points a link somewhere, src pulls a file in.

The correct answer is B, all of the options, because each of the other three statements is a genuine rule of the language and the question asks which of them apply. Option A is a true statement and therefore not the answer by itself: reserved words such as class, int, public and static already have a meaning for the compiler and cannot be reused as identifiers. Option C is likewise true on its own: Java is case sensitive, so total, Total and TOTAL are three different variables, and a mismatch of case is one of the commonest beginner errors. Option D states the usual rule that an identifier begins with a letter, although Java also allows an underscore or a dollar sign as the first character and never allows a digit there. Since every listed statement holds good, the combined option is the one to mark; whenever three individually correct statements appear with an all of the above choice, check each and then take the combined option.

The correct answer is C, B2C. Flipkart, Alibaba and Amazon run online marketplaces whose storefronts sell goods to individual shoppers, and a business selling to a consumer is business-to-consumer, or B2C. In this model a firm lists its products on a website or an app, the customer orders and pays online, and the goods reach the home, so the shop, the salesman and the cash counter are all replaced by software. B2C is the commonest face of e-commerce and the one ordinary buyers meet every day. A is wrong because consumer-to-business, C2B, is the reverse case, where an individual offers a service or product to a firm, as a freelance designer or a blogger selling advertising space does. B is wrong because consumer-to-consumer, C2C, means one individual selling to another through a platform such as OLX. D is wrong because business-to-business, B2B, covers a firm selling to another firm, as IndiaMART does. Exam tip: Amazon and Flipkart are B2C, OLX is C2C and IndiaMART is B2B.

The correct answer is B, F2. Selecting a file or folder in Windows and pressing F2 makes its name editable at once, without going through the right click menu. The same key has a second well known use: in MS Excel it puts the active cell into edit mode so that its contents can be changed in the cell itself. Option A is wrong because F1 opens the help window of whichever program is running. Option C is wrong because F5 refreshes a window or reloads a web page, and in MS PowerPoint it starts the slide show from the first slide. Option D is wrong because F7 runs the spelling and grammar check in MS Word. The function keys are pure memory work, and F1, F2, F5, F7 and F12 are the five that appear most often.

The correct answer is A, Program counter. In the 8085A microprocessor the program counter is a 16-bit register that always holds the memory address of the next instruction, or op-code, to be fetched. After each fetch it is incremented automatically, and a jump or call instruction loads a new address into it so that control moves elsewhere in the program. Two other registers of the 8085 are often confused with it. The accumulator is the 8-bit register A in which arithmetic and logic results are stored. The stack pointer is a 16-bit register holding the address of the top of the stack, used while saving return addresses and register contents. B and C are wrong for those reasons. D is wrong because instruction pointer is the name Intel's later x86 processors use for the same idea; the 8085 register is called the program counter. Exam tip: 8085 has an 8-bit accumulator and 16-bit program counter and stack pointer.

The correct answer is C, the binary digits 0 and 1. Machine language is the only language the processor understands directly, because each instruction is a pattern of electrical states that is written as a string of zeros and ones; a program in machine language therefore needs no translation and runs fastest, but it is tied to one processor and is very hard for a person to write or correct. Option A is wrong because English-like statements belong to the high-level languages of the third generation, such as COBOL, C and Java. Option B is wrong because mnemonics such as ADD, SUB and MOV belong to assembly language, the second generation, which needs an assembler to be converted into machine code. Option D is wrong because query statements belong to the fourth generation, of which SQL is the standard example and in which the programmer says what is wanted rather than how to get it. Machine and assembly language together form the low-level group.

The correct answer is B, Half-duplex. Data can travel between two devices in three modes. In half-duplex mode both devices can send and receive, but only one of them may transmit at any given moment, so the traffic takes turns; a walkie-talkie is the standard example, and older hubs and CB radio worked the same way. In simplex mode data moves in one direction only, as from a keyboard to the computer or from a radio station to a receiver. In full-duplex mode both sides can send and receive at the same time, as in a telephone call or on a modern switched network. A is wrong because simplex allows no return traffic at all. C is wrong because three-quarters duplex is not a recognised mode. D is wrong because only one of the listed modes fits the description. Exam tip: simplex is one way, half-duplex is both ways by turns, full-duplex is both ways together.

The correct answer is C, .pptx. From the 2007 version onwards, MS Office moved to an XML based format in which every main program received an extension ending in the letter x, and a PowerPoint presentation became .pptx, the older format being .ppt. Option A is wrong because .docx belongs to an MS Word document. Option B is wrong because .xlsx belongs to an MS Excel workbook, the older form of which is .xls. Option D is wrong because there is no extension .mdbx; the old Microsoft Access database used .mdb and the newer one uses .accdb. A quick way to hold this set together is to remember the three pairs .doc and .docx, .xls and .xlsx, .ppt and .pptx, which cover most of the questions asked from Office extensions.

The correct answer is A, Write Once, Read Many. WORM describes a storage medium on which data can be written a single time and after that only read, never altered or erased. A CD-R or a DVD-R is the everyday example, because once the disc has been burnt the marks made in its dye layer are permanent. Since the record cannot be changed later, WORM media are used for archives, bank and hospital records, court evidence and audit trails, where proof that nothing was tampered with matters more than the freedom to edit. Modern systems offer the same guarantee in software on hard disks and cloud storage. B is wrong because Word On RAM Memory is not a storage term at all. C is wrong because it mixes optical recognition with malware, and the worm that is malware is an ordinary word, not an acronym. D is wrong because WORM has nothing to do with wireless working. Exam tip: WORM means Write Once Read Many, as on CD-R and DVD-R, and is used for tamper-proof archives.

The correct answer is B, HTML. HyperText Markup Language uses tags to describe how the content of a web page is arranged, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and images, but it has no variables, no conditions and no loops, so it cannot express logic or take decisions; for that reason it is called a markup language and not a programming language. Option A is wrong because Python is a full general-purpose language, created by Guido van Rossum, widely used today for data science, automation and web work. Option C is wrong because Java is a general-purpose, object-oriented language whose compiled bytecode runs on the Java Virtual Machine. Option D is wrong because C++ is a general-purpose language built on C by Bjarne Stroustrup with support for classes and objects. The usual companion question asks which language makes a web page interactive, and the answer there is JavaScript, which despite the similar name is unrelated to Java.

The correct answer is A, Alt + F4. This combination closes the window or program that is active at the moment, and when it is pressed on the desktop with no program open it brings up the box that shuts down or restarts the computer. Option B is wrong because Ctrl + F4 closes only the current document or tab inside a program while the program itself stays open, a smaller action that is often used as a distractor beside Alt + F4. Option C is wrong because Alt + Tab does not close anything; it switches between the windows that are already open. Option D is wrong because Ctrl + Esc opens the Start menu, the same work that the Windows key does on its own. Read the question carefully to see whether it asks about the window or the document.

The correct answer is A, Guido van Rossum. He designed Python in the Netherlands and released the first version in 1991, choosing a syntax with indentation instead of braces so that programs would be easy to read; the name comes from a television comedy series and not from the snake. Option B is wrong because Brendan Eich created JavaScript in 1995 to add interactivity to web pages in a browser. Option C is wrong because Niklaus Wirth designed Pascal around 1970 for teaching structured programming, and it is named after the mathematician Blaise Pascal. Option D is wrong because John Backus led the IBM team that produced FORTRAN in 1957, the first high-level language. In papers set for banking and Railway examinations this pairing of language and creator is asked almost every year, so revise the list as one block rather than one name at a time.

The correct answer is B, .rar. A file with the extension .rar is an archive in which one or more files have been packed and compressed so that they take less space and can be sent as a single unit; .zip, .7z and .tar do the same work. Option A is wrong because .png, the portable network graphics format, is an image file that supports a transparent background. Option C is wrong because .wav is an uncompressed audio format developed for Windows, generally larger in size than an .mp3 file of the same recording. Option D is wrong because .ttf is a TrueType font file, which supplies the shapes of letters to the operating system. Questions of the odd one out kind are common here, so learn the extensions in groups by the type of file rather than one by one.