COLOMBO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL KANDY

SENIOR SECTION

Year 10

Computer Science – Theory

End of 3rd Term Examination – June 2022

1 and half hours

Name : …………………………………………………………………………………

Class : ………………………………………….……………………………………..
Total marks : ………... / 75

Instructions:
1. The total mark for this paper is 75.
2. The marks for each question are shown in brackets – use this as a guide as to how much time to
spend on each question.
3. Attempt all questions.
4. Type your answers in the question paper itself.
5. Save your work regularly.
6. Workings should be shown for conversions and calculations.
 1

(a) Identify the smallest unit of measurement. (1)

a. bit

b. byte

c. kibibyte

d. nibble

(b) Identify the maximum number of values that can be represented with 5 bits. (1)
a. 5

b. 16

c. 25

d. 32

(c) A car park uses a number-plate recognition system.

I. Identify the reason why an unsigned integer should be used to record the number of
cars entering the car park, rather than a singed integer. (1)

A. Unsigned integers are more accurate

B. Unsigned integers cannot have overflow errors
C. Unsigned integers store more positive values
D. Unsigned integers do not use a parity bit.
II. The system stores images of car number plates
Construct an expression to show how the bytes there are in 6 tebibytes.
You do not need to carry out the calculation. (3)

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(d) Identify the 4-bit binary addition that will result in an overflow error. (1)

A 1001+1000

B 0011+1001

C 1000+0110
D 0111+1000

(e) Give the 8-bit binary representation of the denary number 82. (2)

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(f) (i) Convert the binary number 010011010 to hexadecimal (2)

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(ii) Explain why hexadecimal notation is used. (2)

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 (g) An analogue to digital converter is used to change the sounds received by a microphone into a form
that can be processed by a computer.
Complete the diagram to show a sample interval and label both axes. (3)

(h) An image uses a 12-bit colour depth. It is 64 pixels wide and 48 pixels high.

Construct an expression to calculate the file size of the image in MiB.

You do not have to do the calculation. (4)
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(Total for Question 1 = 20 Marks)

 2

(a) A hotel chain has hotels in several countries and a head office in England.
State the type of network needed to connect these hotels to the head office. (1)

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(b) Draw lines between these devices to show a fully-connected Mesh Network Topology diagram.

(2)

Server Laptop

Smart
phone

Printer
(c) Routers send packets that contain data around the internet. State two other items found in a
packet. (2)
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(d) The transport layer of network protocols splits data into packets before sending it. All the packets
are received correctly. Describe the process that ensures the data received matches the original
(2)
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(e) Construct an expression to show how many seconds it will take to transmit 20 MiB of data using a
network transmission speed of 2 Mbps.

You do not have to do the calculation. (4)

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(Total for Question 2=11 Marks)

3.

(a) One function of utility software is to provide anti-malware.

State two other functions of utility software. (2)

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(b) State one way that a code review helps programmers to produce robust software. (1)

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(c) Describe the role of the control unit, the control bus, the data bus and the address bus when
fetching an instruction from memory. (4)

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(d) The operating system controls the scheduling of processes.

Describe how the operating system uses scheduling to allocate processor time (4)

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(e) A team of programmers is creating the code for an alarm system. The system uses
a high-level programming language for the touchscreen graphical user interface
and a low-level language for the control unit that monitors the sensors and
triggers the alarm.
Discuss the characteristics of high-level languages and low-level languages that
make them appropriate for the team of programmers to code these uses.

Your answer should consider:

• the purpose of the system

• the advantages of high-level languages

• the advantages of low-level languages. (6)

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(Total for Question 3 =17 Marks)

4 A car has many embedded systems.
(a) An embedded system processes binary numbers.
(i) The speed limit for some roads is 60 miles per hour.
Convert the denary number 60 to 8-bit binary. (2)

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(ii) The car displays speed limits in denary.

Convert the 8-bit binary number 0010 0011 to denary. (2)

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(iii) The embedded system adds numbers in binary.

(a) Complete the table to show the result of 0010 0011 + 0100 1010 (2)
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1

0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
 (b) One example of an embedded system in a car is windscreen wipers that automatically
come on when it rains.
(i) Explain how an embedded system could control the headlights of a car. (3)

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(ii) A bit can have two different states.

State how many bits are needed to represent the 26 capital letters A to Z.Give a reason for your
answer.
(2)
Number of bits

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Reason

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(c) One of the embedded systems in the car collects real-time data. The data is encrypted.

(i) Identify one reason why encryption is used. (1)

A To prevent data corruption
B To reduce network transmission times
C To keep data secure

D To prevent viruses

(ii) Complete the table using a Caesar Cipher algorithm. (2)

Plain Text Shift Cipher Text

brakes +4

clutch ajsraf

(iii) Explain one special condition a Caesar Cipher algorithm must handle.
(2)

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(Total for Question 4=16 Marks)

5. An online quiz asks students questions about computer science topics.
(a) Images are used in some of the questions.

(i) An image is 300 pixels high and 200 pixels wide.

Construct an expression to calculate how many pixels are needed to represent
this.image.
(1)

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(ii) An image file uses 24-bit colour depth.

Describe how 24-bits are used to represent the colour in the file.
(3)

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(b).
A Player earns a badge for every 100 questions they answer correctly, providing this
includes at least 10 hard questions or 30 medium questions.

This can be expressed as (NQ>=100) and (HQ>=10 or MQ>=30)

Complete the truth table.

(7)

(Total for Question 5 =11 Marks)

END OF PAPER