Computer Awareness Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is C, RAM. Random access memory holds the programs and data the processor is working on at that moment, and it is volatile: the instant the power supply is cut, everything stored in it disappears. That is why unsaved work is lost in a power failure.

Option A, ROM, is read-only memory, written normally at manufacture and non-volatile, so it keeps the start-up instructions safely when the machine is switched off. Option B, the hard disk, is secondary storage and is non-volatile by design, since its whole purpose is to hold data permanently. Option D, EPROM, is erasable programmable read-only memory, a ROM variant whose contents can be wiped with ultraviolet light and rewritten, but it too retains data without power. The single word to test in such a question is volatile, and only RAM carries it.

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 C, DPI, dots per inch. Print quality depends on how many separate dots of ink or toner the printer can place in one inch of paper, so a printer working at a higher DPI produces smoother curves and crisper small text.

The other three options are all speed units, which is exactly the confusion the question is built on. Option A, PPM, pages per minute, measures the speed of a page printer such as a laser printer. Option B, CPS, characters per second, measures a character printer such as the dot matrix. Option D, LPM, lines per minute, measures a line printer such as the drum or chain printer. Learn the set as one line: quality is DPI, and the speed unit changes with the amount the printer commits to at one time, a character, a line or a page.

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 B, 4 bits. A bit is the smallest unit of data, holding a single binary 0 or 1. Four bits together form a nibble, which is exactly half a byte, and a nibble is convenient because it maps neatly to one hexadecimal digit.

Option A, 2 bits, corresponds to no standard named unit. Option C, 8 bits, is a byte, the amount of memory needed to store one character, and it is the commonest distractor here because students remember the two units together. Option D, 16 bits, is often called a word on some machines, but word length varies with the processor and is not a fixed unit like the nibble. Above the byte the ladder rises in multiples of 1024: kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte and yottabyte. Learn the pair nibble four, byte eight together and read the question word carefully.

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 B, OCR, Optical Character Recognition. A plain scan is only a picture of the page, and nothing in it can be searched or corrected. OCR examines the shape of every character in that picture, matches it against the letters it knows and hands back real text that can be edited in a word processor.

Option A, OMR, the Optical Mark Reader, is a simpler device that only registers whether a mark is present at a fixed spot on the sheet, which is enough for an objective answer sheet but useless for reading words. Option C, MICR, reads only the special magnetic-ink characters of the E-13B font at the foot of a bank cheque. Option D, the QR code, is a two-dimensional barcode that stores encoded data in a pattern of squares; it is read by a scanner but it does not recognise ordinary printed text.

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 C, the Control Unit. It fetches each instruction from memory, decodes it, and then issues signals that tell the other parts of the system what to do and when. It manages the flow of data between memory, the arithmetic unit and the input and output devices, but it never performs arithmetic or a comparison itself.

Option A, the Arithmetic Logic Unit, is where all addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and logical comparisons actually happen, so it is precisely the unit the question excludes. Option B, cache memory, is a small very fast memory placed between the processor and main memory to hold frequently used data, and it is a memory rather than a control component. Option D, a register, is the smallest and fastest storage location inside the processor, used to hold an operand or an intermediate result for a moment. The CPU is the sum of the arithmetic unit, the control unit and the registers.

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 C, maps and engineering drawings. A plotter holds a pen against the paper and moves it, so it draws continuous lines rather than building the image out of dots. That is exactly what large technical drawings need, which is why plotters are used for architectural plans, survey maps and output from design software. The drum plotter and the flatbed plotter are its two types.

Option A, photographs on glossy paper, calls for an inkjet or a photo printer that can lay down blended colour dots. Option B, carbon copies of receipts, needs an impact printer such as the dot matrix, because only a strike through the ribbon presses onto the sheet below. Option D, cash memos at a billing counter, is the ordinary work of a small thermal printer. Note also that a plotter is an output device, although its pen makes it look like a drawing input.

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 B, the third generation. The integrated circuit packs many transistors and other components onto a single silicon chip, and computers built on it were far smaller, cheaper and more reliable than their predecessors. The third generation also introduced the keyboard and monitor in place of punched cards and the operating system that allowed several programs to share the machine, with the IBM System 360 as the standard example.

Option A, the second generation, is the age of the individual transistor, not of chips carrying many of them. Option C, the fourth generation, is defined by the microprocessor and very large scale integration, where an entire processor sits on one chip. Option D, the fifth generation, is described in terms of ultra large scale integration, parallel processing and artificial intelligence rather than a single new component. The trap is that a microprocessor is itself an integrated circuit, so match the exact word the question uses.

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 C, laser printer. It builds the image of a whole page on a photosensitive drum with a laser beam, then picks up dry toner on that image and fuses it onto the paper with heat and pressure. Since it commits to one complete page at a time, its speed is quoted in pages per minute and the machine is called a page printer.

Option A, the dot matrix, is a character printer: its head prints a few characters at a time and its speed is given in characters per second. Option B, the daisy wheel, is also a character printer; it carries fully formed letters on the petals of a wheel and strikes them through a ribbon. Option D, the inkjet, sprays droplets line by line as the head sweeps across the paper, so it is treated as a line-by-line printer rather than a page printer. Character, line and page is the ladder to remember.

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 D, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, usually written as C-DAC. PARAM 8000 was unveiled in 1991 under the leadership of Vijay Bhatkar, and it made India one of the small group of countries building their own supercomputers. It began the PARAM series, whose name comes from the Sanskrit word for supreme.

Option A, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, works on nuclear science and has its own computing facilities, but the PARAM line is not its project. Option B, the Indian Space Research Organisation, handles launch vehicles, satellites and space applications. Option C, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, develops defence systems and technologies. Each of these bodies appears in general knowledge papers for its own achievements, so keep the pairing firm: PARAM with C-DAC, and the year 1991 with Vijay Bhatkar as the scientist named in the question.

The correct answer is C, plotter. A plotter takes a drawing that the computer has already prepared and puts it on paper with a moving pen, so data travels out of the machine and never into it. That makes it an output device, and the pen misleads many candidates into marking it as an input.

Option A, the joystick, sends the position of its lever to the computer and is therefore an input device used in games, simulators and machine control. Option B, the light pen, is a photo-sensitive pointing device that tells the computer which point of the screen it is touching, again an input. Option D, the barcode reader, shines light on the printed bars, measures the reflection and sends the decoded number in, which is how billing counters and libraries use it. The safe test is simply the direction in which the data moves.

The correct answer is C, John von Neumann. He set out the idea that a computer should keep its instructions in the same memory as its data, so that a program could be loaded and changed like any other information instead of being wired into the machine. The design built on that idea is called the von Neumann architecture and is still the pattern of ordinary computers.

Option A, Charles Babbage, designed the Analytical Engine with a store and a mill and is the Father of the Computer, but his instructions came from punched cards rather than from memory. Option B, Ada Lovelace, wrote the first algorithm intended for a machine and is called the first programmer. Option D, Herman Hollerith, built the punched-card tabulating machine for the American census and founded the company that grew into IBM. The examinable phrase is stored program, and it belongs to von Neumann alone.

The correct answer is A, LPM, lines per minute. A line printer, such as a drum or chain printer, sets up and prints a whole line of characters at one stroke, so counting the lines it finishes in a minute is the natural measure of its speed.

Option B, DPI, dots per inch, is not a speed unit at all: it measures the quality of the print, that is, how finely the dots are packed. Option C, PPM, pages per minute, belongs to page printers such as the laser printer, which prepares an entire page before printing it. Option D, CPS, characters per second, belongs to character printers such as the dot matrix and the daisy wheel, which print a few characters at a time. The three speed units line up with the three classes of printer, character, line and page, and the odd one out in this set is always the quality unit DPI.