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INTERNATIONAL GCSE
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper 2 Concepts and principles of computer science

Tuesday 16 November 2021 07:00 GMT Time allowed: 2 hours

Materials
You will need no other materials. For Examiner’s Use

Question Mark
Instructions
1
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Fill in the boxes at the top of the page. 2
• Answer all questions. 3
• You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write 4
outside the box around each page or on blank pages.
• If you need extra space for your answer(s), use the lined pages at the end of 5
this book. Write the question number against your answer(s). 6
• Do all rough work in this booklet. Cross through any work you do not 7
want to be marked.
8

Information 9
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets. 10
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80. 11
12
13

TOTAL

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Answer all questions in the spaces provided. box

0 1 The pseudocode in Figure 1 represents an algorithm that lets the user enter a list of
five numbers. After the numbers have been entered, the algorithm is supposed to
display the lowest of the five numbers.

For example, if the numbers 403, 912, 87, 212, 308 were entered, then the algorithm
would output 87 as this is the lowest of these five numbers.

Figure 1

lowest  1000
count  0
REPEAT
num  USERINPUT
IF num < lowest THEN
lowest  num
ENDIF
count  count + 1
UNTIL count = 5
OUTPUT lowest

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0 1 . 1 Figure 2 is an incomplete flowchart of the same algorithm that is represented using box

pseudocode in Figure 1.

Write labels in the two empty boxes and draw the two missing arrows so that the
flowchart in Figure 2 is equivalent to the algorithm in Figure 1.
[4 marks]

Figure 2 – Complete this flowchart

Question 1 continues on the next page

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0 1 . 2 Explain why the algorithm in Figure 1 would not produce the correct output if these box

five numbers were entered:

1030, 2972, 8481, 3021, 9043

[1 mark]

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0 2 . 1 Explain the difference between analogue and digital values. box

[1 mark]

0 2 . 2 Write the missing word or words in the description of sound sampling.

[2 marks]

The purpose of sampling sound is to convert analogue sound into digital data

that a computer can store and process. Samples are taken at fixed regular

intervals, determined by the sample rate. A sample is a measurement of

____________________ at a point in time. Each sample is represented using

a fixed number of bits in binary. The number of bits used to represent each

sample is known as the ____________________.

0 2 . 3 State one advantage and one disadvantage of sampling at a higher sample rate.
[2 marks]

Advantage

Disadvantage

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0 3 A student is considering setting a network up in her house. box

The network will be used to enable the computers and other devices in the house to:

• communicate with each other

• connect to the Internet.

0 3 . 1 Describe two benefits of setting a network up in the house.

[2 marks]

Benefit 1

Benefit 2

0 3 . 2 State two benefits of setting the network up as a wired network instead of as a

wireless network.
[2 marks]

Benefit 1

Benefit 2

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0 4 Computers often represent images as bitmaps in memory. box

0 4 . 1 Describe how an image is represented as a bitmap.

[2 marks]

0 4 . 2 A bitmap image uses 16 different colours.

Calculate the minimum colour depth of the image in bits.

[1 mark]

Answer bits

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0 4 . 3 The amount of memory that an image file uses can often be reduced by taking a box

bitmap image file and compressing it to make a compressed image file.

An image file which uses ten colours has been compressed using Huffman coding.
The original bitmap image file uses the minimum possible colour depth for ten colours.

The Huffman tree in Figure 3 has been created to represent the colours used in the
image as bit patterns.

Figure 3

The bit pattern 0111001010001000 represents the colours of four pixels in the
compressed image file.

Write the colour of each of the four pixels in the correct sequence below.
[2 marks]

Pixel 1 Pixel 2 Pixel 3 Pixel 4

colour colour colour colour

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0 4 . 4 Below are some statements about the four pixels in Question 04.3. box

The statements compare the amount of memory that the four pixels use in the
compressed image file to the amount of memory that the same four pixels used in the
original bitmap image file before the image was compressed.

Tick the one statement which is true.

[1 mark]

A The four pixels use less memory in the compressed image file
than in the original bitmap image file.
B The four pixels use more memory in the compressed image file
than in the original bitmap image file.
The four pixels use the same amount of memory in the
C
compressed image file as in the original bitmap image file.
There is not enough information to work out whether the four
D pixels use more memory in the compressed image file or the
original bitmap image file. 6

Turn over for the next question

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0 5 . 1 Tick the two statements that are true about different types of programming box

languages.
[2 marks]

A Assembly language is an example of a low-level language.

It is easier for a human to understand programs written in a

B
low-level language.
It is usually quicker to write a program in a high-level language
C
than in a low-level language.
Programs written in a high-level language usually execute more
D
quickly than programs written in a low-level language.
Subroutines and data structures like lists and arrays can be used
E
in low-level languages but not in high-level languages.

F You write high-level language programs using binary.

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0 5 . 2 A compiler and an interpreter are both tools that can be used to translate high-level box

language programs.

Describe the differences between how compilers and interpreters translate high-level
language programs.
[4 marks]

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0 6 A relational database has been created to store data about school trips. There are box

three tables in the database: Trip, Student and Booking.

Figure 4 shows the data in the three tables.

Figure 4

Trip

TripID Location MaximumPlaces PlacesBooked Cost

1 Cinema 50 2 15.75

2 Rome 20 3 400.00

3 Zoo 40 1 42.50

4 Camp 15 0 65.00

Student

StudentID FirstName LastName Form

1 Henry Batchelor 7E

2 Sienna Cecco 8R

3 Pooja Gohel 8R

4 Joanne Morris 7E

5 Leah Mpofu 8H

6 Zubair Akram 8R

Booking

TripID StudentID AmountPaidSoFar

1 2 15.75

1 4 15.75

2 3 10.00

3 3 42.50

2 1 150.00

2 6 350.00

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0 6 . 1 Explain what a record is in a relational database. box

[1 mark]

0 6 . 2 Tick one box to select the most appropriate data type for the Cost field in the Trip
table.
[1 mark]

A Boolean

B Char

C Integer

D Real

E String

0 6 . 3 List the results of executing the following SQL query on the relational database in
Figure 4.

SELECT FirstName, LastName, AmountPaidSoFar

FROM Trip, Student, Booking
WHERE Form = "8R"
AND Location = "Rome"
AND Booking.TripID = Trip.TripID
AND Booking.StudentID = Student.StudentID
[3 marks]

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0 6 . 4 When a student books a place on a trip, one is added onto the value in the box

PlacesBooked field.

Complete the SQL command below so that it carries out this update when a
student books a place on the trip to the zoo.
[2 marks]

UPDATE _______________

SET _______________ = PlacesBooked _______________

WHERE _____________________________________________

0 6 . 5 In addition to the change described in Question 06.4, another change has to be made
to the database when a student books a place on a trip.

Describe the other change that has to be made.

[1 mark]

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0 7 The computers in an office are connected together using a computer network. box

0 7 . 1 Encryption and MAC address filtering are methods of keeping a computer network
secure.

Describe how these methods keep a computer network secure.

Your descriptions must include an example of a threat that the method would protect
against.
[4 marks]

Encryption

MAC address filtering

Question 7 continues on the next page

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0 7 . 2 The computers on the office network use the TCP/IP model for communication. box

Identify and correct two errors that have been made in the following description of
some aspects of the TCP/IP model.

There are three layers in the TCP/IP model. The application layer is the layer
where network applications, such as web browsers, operate. The network
layer is responsible for addressing data and routing it across the network. The
transport layer includes the network interface card and operating system
device drivers.
[2 marks]

Correction 1

Correction 2

0 8 . 1 Define the term cyber security.

[2 marks]

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0 8 . 2 Viruses and Trojans are malware that can cause harm to a computer system when box

they are executed.

Describe these two types of malware.

[6 marks]

Virus

Trojan

Question 8 continues on the next page

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0 8 . 3 Explain how automatic software updates can help protect computer systems from the box

harm caused by malware.

[2 marks]

10

0 9 Figure 5 shows code used to create a web page.

Figure 5

<html>
<head>
<title>English</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Written English uses <br />26<br /> letters.</p>
<p>There are five vowels.</p>
</body>
</html>

0 9 . 1 Sketch what the web page in Figure 5 will look like when displayed in a web browser.

You may use labels to make your layout clearer, if necessary.

[3 marks]

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0 9 . 2 Tick one box to select the HTML code that should be placed before the word vowels box

in Figure 5 if this word is to be made into a link to the vowels.html web page.
[1 mark]

A <a href = "vowels.html">

B <a link = "vowels.html">

C <br />

D <linkto: vowels.html>

E </a>

0 9 . 3 Write a style rule that could be added to a web page to change the text in paragraphs
to italic.

The appearance of text not in paragraphs should remain unchanged.

[3 marks]

Turn over for the next question

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1 0 . 1 Convert the decimal number 131 into a binary number. box

[1 mark]

1 0 . 2 Convert the hexadecimal number C8 into a decimal number.

Show your working.

[2 marks]

1 0 . 3 How many different bit patterns can be represented using six bits?
[1 mark]

1 0 . 4 What is the largest decimal number that can be represented using seven bits?
[1 mark]

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1 1 Figure 6 shows a list of numbers. box

Figure 6

[4, 7, 14, 25, 28, 32, 33, 56, 78]

1 1 . 1 State the comparisons that would be made when using a linear search algorithm to
look for the number 7 in the list shown in Figure 6.
[1 mark]

1 1 . 2 State the maximum number of comparisons that could be needed when using a
linear search algorithm to look for a number in the list shown in Figure 6.
[1 mark]

1 1 . 3 State the comparisons that would be made when using a binary search algorithm to
look for the number 31 in the list shown in Figure 6.
[3 marks]

1 1 . 4 State one advantage and one disadvantage of the linear search algorithm compared
to the binary search algorithm.
[2 marks]

Advantage

Disadvantage

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1 2 Figure 7 shows a Boolean expression. box

Figure 7

Q=A∙B+A∙B

1 2 . 1 Draw a logic circuit that is equivalent to the Boolean expression in Figure 7.

The output from the Boolean expression is Q.

Your logic circuit must use six logic gates.

[4 marks]

1 2 . 2 Describe the circumstances that would make the Boolean expression in Figure 7
output a 1.
[1 mark]

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1 3 . 1 Explain why increasing the size of the cache memory can improve the performance of box

the CPU.
[2 marks]

1 3 . 2 A computer has the size of its cache memory increased from 12 kilobytes to 16
kilobytes.

How many more bits can the cache memory now hold?

Show your working.

[2 marks]

Answer bits

1 3 . 3 Many computers use solid state secondary storage devices because they are less
likely to break than magnetic storage devices.

State how solid state devices store data and explain why this makes them less likely
to break than magnetic storage devices.
[2 marks]

END OF QUESTIONS

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