Quiz 1

Question 1

Which of the following phrases best describes a system that inputs data, performs one or more calculations, and produces output data?
A) difference engine
B) manual calculator
C) digital computer
D) cash register
E) data-processing system

Answer 1

E) data-processing system

Question 2

Which of the following was not a result of the adoption of mechanical calculators?
A) Higher salaries of bookkeepers
B) Higher productivity of bookkeepers
C) Proliferation of companies making calculators
D) Less demand for “superstars” who could rapidly compute sums by hand
E) Feminization of bookkeeping
Correct Answer(s): A

Answer 2

A) Higher salaries of bookkeepers

Question 3

ARPA Director J.C.R. Licklider conceived of a Galactic Network that would
A) guide spacecraft to distant planets.
B) become the world’s most powerful number-crunching machine.
C) facilitate the exchange of programs and data.
D) All of these
E) control weapons from space.

Answer 3

C) facilitate the exchange of programs and data.

Question 4

Guglielmo Marconi originally conceived of the radio as a way to
A) All of these
B) transmit telegraph messages without wires.
C) transmit light without wires.
D) transmit votes in national elections.
E) transmit electricity without wires.

Answer 4

B) transmit telegraph messages without wires.

Question 5

Which company produced the System/360, a family of 19 compatible mainframe computers?
A) IBM
B) Hewlett-Packard
C) Fujitsu
D) Texas Instruments
E) Intel

Answer 5

A) IBM

Question 6

Alexander Graham Bell invented the harmonic or musical telegraph, which enabled
A) None of these.
B) human speech to be sent over a telegraph wire.
C) human speech … and music to be sent …
D) music to be sent over a telegraph wire.
E) more than one message to be sent over a single telegraph wire at the same time.

Answer 6

E) more than one message to be sent over a single telegraph wire at the same time.

Question 7

Nearly all early telephones were installed in businesses, because
A) people were afraid that telephones were dangerous.
B) leasing a telephone was expensive.
C) only men were allowed to use a telephone.
D) most homes did not have electricity.
E) people thought that the government was using telephones as eavesdropping devices.

Answer 7

B) leasing a telephone was expensive.

Question 8

The calculating machine of Georg and Edvard Sheutz
A) typeset the results of its computations.
B) performed calculations more reliably than they could be done manually.
C) All of these.
D) computed the values of polynomial functions.
E) performed calculations faster than they could be done manually.

Answer 8

C) All of these.

Question 9

Hypertext is supposed to mimic
A) the associative memory of human beings.
B) constellations in the night sky.
C) the way that creeks flow into streams and streams merge into rivers.
D) road networks.
E) the way that some people “channel surf” with a remote control.

Answer 9

A) the associative memory of human beings.

Question 10

Software that allows multiple users to edit and run their programs simultaneously on the same computer is called
A) a programming language.
B) a microprocessor.
C) an intranet.
D) a time-sharing system.
E) a data-processing system.

Answer 10

D) a time-sharing system.

Question 11

The power of radio as a medium of mass communication was demonstrated in 1938 when Orson Welles put on a dramatization of
A) Hamlet.
B) the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt.
C) War of the Worlds.
D) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
E) Homer’s Odyssey.

Answer 11

C) War of the Worlds.

Question 12

A semiconductor device containing transistors, capacitors, and resistors is called
A) a diode.
B) a computer.
C) an integrated circuit.
D) a radio.
E) a transformer.

Answer 12

C) an integrated circuit.

Question 13

The World Wide Web is the creation of
A) Vannevar Bush.
B) Tim Berners-Lee.
C) Douglas Engelbart.
D) Alan Kay.
E) Ted Nelson.

Answer 13

B) Tim Berners-Lee.

Question 14

The first electric networking technology widely used in the United States was the
A) telegraph.
B) Internet.
C) radio.
D) telephone.
E) television.

Answer 14

A) telegraph.

Question 15

Which of the following phrases does not describe the Gilded Age in America?
A) widespread electrification
B) economic expansion
C) rapid industrialization
D) corporate mergers
E) concentration of corporate power

Answer 15

A) widespread electrification

Question 16

Which Cold War program played an important role in advancing integrated circuit technology?
A) B-52 bomber
B) Hydrogen bomb
C) NORAD radar network
D) Mark 37 torpedo
E) Minuteman II ballistic missile

Answer 16

E) Minuteman II ballistic missile

Question 17

The company that invented the microprocessor is
A) Intel
B) Fujitsu
C) IBM
D) Hewlett-Packard
E) Texas Instruments

Answer 17

A) Intel

Question 18

Which of the following was not an early programming language?
A) FLOW-MATIC
B) FORTRAN
C) COBOL
D) DATA-FLOW
E) BASIC

Answer 18

D) DATA-FLOW

Question 19

One of the first and most important applications of the ARPANET was
A) disseminating anti-Communist propaganda to American citizens.
B) voice mail.
C) spreading computer viruses.
D) stealing secrets from the Soviet Union.
E) email.

Answer 19

E) email.

Question 20

Programming languages were developed in order to
A) make programming faster and less error-prone.
B) All of these.
C) speed translations between English and Russian during the Cold War.
D) make it possible to program computers in English.
E) improve the computation speed of computers, which were very expensive.

Answer 20

A) make programming faster and less error-prone.

Question 21

The software company that provided IBM with the operating system for its PC was
A) Microsoft.
B) Tandy.
C) Boeing.
D) Apple.
E) Novell.

Answer 21

A) Microsoft.

Question 22

Which statement best supports the conclusion that society can control whether to adopt a new technology?
A) About half of all email messages are spam.
B) No new nuclear power plants were built in the United States for 25 years after the accident at Three Mile Island.
C) People do not have to listen to Rush Limbaugh if they do not want to.
D) Despite decades of research, fusion power is an elusive goal.
E) Some new technologies are simply too expensive to even consider adopting.

Answer 22

B) No new nuclear power plants were built in the United States for 25 years after the accident at Three Mile Island

Question 23

The first popular personal computer with a graphical user interface was the
A) Tandy TRS-80.
B) .NeXT workstation.
C) Compaq Presario.
D) IBM PC.
E) Apple Macintosh.

Answer 23

E) Apple Macintosh.

Question 24

Tablets, abacuses, and manual tables
A) are no longer used, because of the proliferation of calculators and computers.
B) All of these.
C) are examples of aids to manual calculating.
D) were developed in Western Europe in the late Middle Ages.
E) replaced Hindu-Arabic numerals as the preferred way to do calculations.

Answer 24

C) are examples of aids to manual calculating.

Question 25

The Pony Express went out of business when
A) AT&T completed the national telephone network.
B) the radio was invented.
C) the Mexican War ended in 1846.
D) the transcontinental telegraph was completed.
E) the Civil War began in 1861.

Answer 25

D) the transcontinental telegraph was completed.

Question 26

A typewriter that prints a message transmitted over a telegraph line is called a
A) teletype.
B) transponder.
C) monitor.
D) terminal.
E) computer.

Answer 26

A) teletype.

Question 27

Punched card tabulation was invented by Herman Hollerith, an employee of
A) IBM.
B) the Pennsylvania Railroad.
C) the Pennsylvania Steel Company.
D) the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.
E) the Census Bureau.

Answer 27

E) the Census Bureau.

Question 28

Which of the following was not a feature of cash registers in the early 1900s?
A) Ability to compute amount of change to give customer
B) Ability to ring a bell every time cash drawer is opened
C) Ability to print itemized receipts for customers
D) Ability to print log of transactions for owners
E) Ability to compute total of purchases

Answer 28

A) Ability to compute amount of change to give customer

Question 29

Who wrote “An Open Letter to Hobbyists,” complaining about software theft?
A) Stewart Brand
B) Bill Gates
C) Steve Jobs
D) Steve Wozniak
E) Bob Frankston

Answer 29

B) Bill Gates

Question 30

What visionary invented the computer mouse and demonstrated windows, email, and live network videoconferencing at “the mother of all demos” in 1968?
A) Douglas Engelbart
B) Vannevar Bush
C) Al Gore
D) Ted Nelson
E) Alan Kay

Answer 30

A) Douglas Engelbart

Question 31

The mechanical adding machines of Pascal and Leibniz were not widely adopted because
A) they were too difficult to program.
B) they could not handle fractions.
C) they were unreliable.
D) bookkeepers successfully lobbied the King, and he made the machines illegal.
E) they were too expensive.

Answer 31

C) they were unreliable.