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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. How did people save money in sending telegraph messages?
(a) By bribing the operators.
(b) By compressing the message.
(c) By creating their own code.
(d) By not using it.

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

3. What code did Claude Shannon apply to relay switches which could either be open or closed?
(a) .1 to .5
(b) 0 and 1.
(c) 1 and 100
(d) 2 and 4

4. What was provided in "A Table Alphabeticall"?
(a) New words.
(b) Word meanings.
(c) The history of alphabets.
(d) Alphabets of the world.

5. What new word did Claude Shannon, a mathematical researcher at Bell Labs, introduce in the in-house journal called "A Mathematical Theory of Communication"?
(a) The bit.
(b) The relay.
(c) The transistor.
(d) The circuit.

Short Answer Questions

1. What culture was the first to use a written language?

2. 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?

3. Who invented the telegraph?

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

5. Where was knowledge stored prior to the written word?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the purpose of Cawdrey's wordbook, "A Table Alphabeticall?"

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

3. What technological breakthrough resulted from Claude Shannon's theories and work?

4. What was the purpose behind the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary?

5. Who was Claude Shannon?

6. 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?

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

8. Who invented the "first" telegraph?

9. Why did Ada Lovelace publish her mathematical arguments anonymously?

10. While working on plans for this "analytical engine," Babbage struck an acquaintance with what young woman?

(see the answer keys)

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