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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. Claude Shannon and Alan Turing were working on separate cryptography project and shared what astounding possibility?
(a) That machines could take over the human race.
(b) That machines could think.
(c) That machines could cure disease.
(d) That machines could have emotions.

2. What culture was the first to use a written language?
(a) Italian.
(b) Egyptian.
(c) English.
(d) Chinese.

3. Shannon showed that it was theoretically possible to overcome any amount of signal noise by what action?
(a) By creating the first anti-virus element.
(b) By sending corrective bits of information.
(c) By changing locations.
(d) By limiting data.

4. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How many years ago was the first language established?

2. All known alphabets are based on the original alphabet that emerged about 1500 B.C. in what area?

3. What society created the first numeric tables?

4. What did the written language provide that helped to progress the intellect of mankind?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the development of the written language assist Greek philosophers in advancing mankind?

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

3. What are the two "wordbooks" that Gleick refers to in this chapter?

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

5. Who first at the concept of "bandwith" and in what context was it first conceived?

6. In modern times, what innovation has had the most impact on language?

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

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

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

10. Who developed the Principia Mathematica and what did it provide?

(see the answer keys)

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