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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. There was no "looking up" of information prior to what invention?
(a) Pen and ink.
(b) Publishing houses.
(c) Writing.
(d) Printing machines.

2. Who devised a way to multiply and divide numbers by adding or subtracting their logarithms?
(a) John Napier.
(b) Aristotle.
(c) Thomas Fincke.
(d) Isaac Newton.

3. Who first thought of constructing a machine that could calculate logarithms?
(a) Galileo.
(b) Issac Newton.
(c) Charles Babbage.
(d) John Napier.

4. Seventeenth numerical tables were set up so that what factor could be learned about each number?
(a) The base number.
(b) The logarithm.
(c) The square root.
(d) Pi.

5. How many years ago was the first language established?
(a) Between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.
(b) 100,000 years ago.
(c) Between 4,500 and 8,000 years ago.
(d) 50,000 years ago.

6. What were the two essential elements of Shannon's simple communication model?
(a) Grid and network.
(b) Two relay switches.
(c) Circuit and grid.
(d) A transmitter and a receiver.

7. What word book by James Murray was first published in 1879?
(a) The First Language.
(b) The Birth of Writing.
(c) A Table Alphabeticall.
(d) Oxford English Dictionary.

8. The telegraph invented by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail was based on what function?
(a) Capturing electrical impulses.
(b) The Morse Code.
(c) Opening and closing the electric circuit.
(d) Logarithms.

9. An alphabetical list did not take what element of the word into account at all, but mechanically placed it in a slot based on the order of the letters?
(a) Its popularity.
(b) Its relevance.
(c) Its meaning.
(d) Its importance.

10. What type of lists did Babbage create about livestock, fabric, letter combinations in various languages and other facts?
(a) Statistical.
(b) Random.
(c) Numeric.
(d) Alphabetical.

11. All known alphabets are based on the original alphabet that emerged about 1500 B.C. in what area?
(a) South America.
(b) Asia.
(c) Egypt.
(d) The Mediterranean region.

12. What were the benefits of the early logarithm tables?
(a) Provided solutions.
(b) Cut down on errors and allowed for quicker calculations.
(c) Made work easier.
(d) Eliminated calculations.

13. What was the main form of communication in the late 1940s?
(a) The telephone.
(b) Letters.
(c) Special couriers.
(d) The telegraph.

14. What was used in the earliest known method of writing language?
(a) Numbers.
(b) Codes.
(c) Pictures.
(d) Zeroes and ones.

15. What jobs were created to handle the increasing number of telephone calls?
(a) Switchboard operators.
(b) Call center personnel.
(c) Secretaries.
(d) Office assistants.

Short Answer Questions

1. The invention of what technology would make Shannon's theory of a computing machine practical?

2. What is the system of dots and dashes used to communicate telegrams called?

3. Shannon showed that it was theoretically possible to overcome any amount of signal noise by what action?

4. What was the goal of James Murray when he wrote the first Oxford English Dictionary in 1879?

5. How were phonetic sounds represented in language?

(see the answer keys)

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