(HKCEE 2006 Paper 1B Question 1)
Peter is a student in Hong Kong. He is working on a joint project with Mary who is studying in
New York, USA. It is known that the time lag between Hong Kong and New York is 12 hours.
(a) Peter sends emails to communicate with Mary. (4 marks)
(i) Give one advantage of email over the traditional telephone line.
(ii) Give one advantage of the traditional telephone line over email.
(iii) Suggest another two communication methods through the Internet for them.
(b) Peter tries to send a large file as an attachment in an email to Mary. However, the email system
does not allow it because of a ‘transfer limit per mail’ policy under all email systems. (4 marks)
(i) Briefly explain why the email system has such policy.
(ii) Briefly describe how to send this file through the Internet successfully.
Peter wants to learn how to connect some computers to form a network. He types ‘network’ in a
search engine to search relevant information from the Internet. Part of the first page of the search
result is shown below:
He can only find some useful links on the second page onwards.
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(c) (i) Why does the search result include some irrelevant links and place them at the top?
(ii) Describe a way to improve the search result.
(4 marks)
(d) Peter writes a web page in HTML by a text editor: (4 marks)
<html> This project includes:
<body> 1. WWW 2. HTML
This project includes:<br> 3. TCP/IP 4. IP address
1. WWW 2. HTML<br>
3. TCP/IP 4. IP address<br>
</body>
</html>
Source file Expected Display
When he uses a browser to preview the web page, the actual display is not the same as he expects.
(i) What is the difference between the expected display and the actual display?
(ii) Suggest a modification to the source file to solve the problem. (Candidates are not
required to write the HTML codes.)
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(HKCEE 2006 Paper 1B Question 2)
Jenny, a clerk in a school in Hong Kong, sticks the following label on a student registration form
and scans the data of the label into a computer using a bar code reader.
(a) (i) Which part(s) of the label, A, B, or both, can be recognized by a bar code reader?
(ii) What is the advantage of using this label?
(iii) What data can the label represent?
(iv) Briefly describe how this kind of label could be used to perform another common task in
school.
(4 marks)
Jenny types the rest of the data in the student registration form into the computer that uses BIG5
code to encode data in Chinese characters.
(b) (i) Why is BIG5 code more suitable than GB code in this application?
(ii) The ASCII code is used to represent alphanumeric characters. Can BIG5 code represent
alphanumeric characters? Explain briefly.
(3 marks)
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After inputting the data, the computer generates a summary record for every student. The layout is
shown below:
Summary Record Personal
Information: name
class Extracurricular
activities: Sports Music
Others
(c) Jenny wants to redesign the layout so that it becomes more readable and tidy. Suggest a design
for Jenny by completing the layout below:
Summary Record
(3 marks)
(d) The data from the student registration form is stored in a database file. The summary records
can be generated by either word processing software or database software.
Suggest a function of the software that should be used to generate the records.
(i) word processing software
(ii) database software
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(2 marks)
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(HKCEE 2006 Paper 1B Question 3)
Tom works in a trading company. Now, the company wants to form a network of five computers.
(a) Tom needs to buy either notebook computers or desktop computers to form the network.
Besides the cost, give two criteria for Tom to use when choosing between them.
(2 marks)
He decides to buy desktop computers with one of the following two configurations.
Computer specification Computer A Computer B
CPU P4 2.8 GHz P4 3.0 GHz
RAM 1 GB 512 MB
Hard Disk 80 GB 120 GB
Network Fast Ethernet 802.11g
(b) Compare the performance of the two computers with respect to the computational power,
storage capacity and data transfer rate of the network.
(3 marks)
(c) He wants to connect an external DVD writer to Computer A.
(i) The DVD writer is not designed to connect to a parallel port. Why?
(ii) Give the port that the DVD writer should be connected to:
(iii) The DVD writer is labelled ‘4X 8X 50X’. The first two values, 4 and 8, refer to the data
transfer rates on writing data on DVD-RW and DVD-R respectively. What does the third
value, 50, refer to?
(3 marks)
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(d) Tom decides to use LCD monitors instead of traditional CRT monitors.
(i) In terms of environmental protection, give one reason to support his decision.
(ii) In terms of health issues, give one reason to support his decision.
(2 marks)
(e) He needs to buy new chairs for computer users. Give two ergonomic design features of the
chairs.
(2 marks)
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(HKCEE 2006 Paper 1B Question 4)
Mr. Lam designs a simple greenhouse cooling and heating system. The ideal greenhouse
temperature is between 20C and 32C. Initially, the cooler and heater are off. The system will be
operated as follows:
Temperature (X) Cooler (C) Heater (H)
X < 20 OFF ON
X > 32 ON OFF
The flowchart below describes the operations of the system and Module E is a part for energy
conservative.
(a) (i) Fill the appropriate conditions of X in the two decision boxes of the flowchart.
(ii) In order to save more energy, Mr. Lam decides that the heater will be turned on when 24
>= X and cooler will be turned off when 28X. Draft a flowchart for Module E to
implement his idea in the space provided. The design of Module E should be precise and
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without redundancy.
Module E
(7 marks)
(b) Mr. Lam decides to use a low level programming language to implement the system, instead of a
high level programming language.
(i) Besides the shorter compilation time and execution time, give a reason to support his
decision.
(ii) He decides to use the assembly language instead of the machine code. Why?
(3 marks)
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(HKCEE 2006 Paper 1B Question 5)
Ms Ng is developing a computer control system for the Transport Department. A pedestrian light
will receive a control signal to subsequently turn on either RED or GREEN light for less than 128
seconds. An example of the control signal is shown below:
GREEN 112
The colour of light The number of seconds
Every control signal will be converted into a bit pattern for transmission.
(a) Explain briefly how 8 bits can be sufficient to represent a control signal.
(2 marks)
(b) During data transmission, one error bit may occur in a control signal. Describe a way to check
the error.
(1 mark)
(c) As part of the development process of the system, Ms Ng completes the design of the algorithm
and the coding of the program.
(i) What should she do next?
(ii) Why is the process in (c)(i) so important?
(iii) What important information of the process in (c)(i) should be documented? Give one example.
(3 marks)
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(d) The system is connected to a network only for the staff of the Transport Department. Ms Ng
worries about the possibility of hacking.
(i) She decides to use a private network. However, she still wants to install a firewall. Why?
(ii) A colleague may steal Ms Ng’s password to log on to the system. Besides checking the user ID
and password, suggest two methods of enhancing system security.
Method 1:
Method 2:
(4 marks)
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