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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was changing language at the time the first English dictionary was developed?
(a) Travel and conquest.
(b) International trade.
(c) Increased population.
(d) Advanced education.

2. How did sub-Saharan African tribes communicate over long distances?
(a) By drums.
(b) By messenger.
(c) By witchcraft.
(d) By smoke signals.

3. What was Shannon able to theoretically compute by measuring a message in bits? By measuring information in bits, he could theoretically compute the maximum amount of information that could be transmitted through a given channel.
(a) The maximum size a message could be.
(b) The limits of computing.
(c) The maximum amount of information that could be transmitted.
(d) The virtual size of the message in microns.

4. Why did Lovelace publish her mathematical arguments anonymously?
(a) She didn't want to embarrass her father.
(b) She didn't want to appear more intelligent than Babbage.
(c) She wasn't sure her arguments were correct.
(d) Women were not expected to engage in scientific or academic efforts.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How many words were contained in "A Table Alphabeticall?"

2. What was the small device intended to replace bulky vacuum tubes perfected by Bell Laboratories called?

3. What did MIT scholar Vannevar Bush create?

4. While working on plans for this "analytical engine," Babbage struck an acquaintance with what individual?

5. What language do the drums of what is now Zaire mimic?

Short Essay Questions

1. By reducing information to its elemental form, Claude Shannon opened up a new field of scientific inquiry that proved to have applications not only in communications, but in what other fields?

2. What impact did the electric telegraph have on the world?

3. After the use of pictures, what were the next two stages of language development?

4. Who invented the telegraph and what is its fundamental functionality?

5. Who invented the "first" telegraph?

6. Who first conceived the idea of a machine that could think and under what circumstances?

7. Who was Claude Shannon?

8. What advanced form of communication was beginning to emerge in the 1840s?

9. What innovative device did Charles Babbage design and build?

10. How was binary code of 0s and 1s which is the foundation for computing first conceived and by whom?

(see the answer keys)

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