Question 1, May 2020, Pearson Edexcel International GCSE (9-1) Information and Communication Technology, Paper-1

Sachini and Ashan have two children, Kasuni and Deshan.

They use digital devices in their daily lives.

Sachini shops online for a new laptop.

(a) Give two advantages of shopping online rather than on the high street. (2)

1 Online shopping allows customers to avoid having to travel to the high street.

2 Online shopping allows customers to easily reorder the same products that they bought last time, which save them time.

(b) Which one of these uses magnetic media? (1)

A Solid state disc

B Flash disc

C Hard disc 

D Optical disc

C Hard disc 

(c) Sachini cannot access Wi‑Fi.

Name one type of mobile phone connectivity that Sachini could use to access the Internet. (1)

Sachini could use mobile broadband either 3G or 4G to access the Internet.

(d) The amount of RAM in a computer can be increased.

(i) Explain one benefit to the user of increasing the amount of RAM. (3)

Benefit

Having lots of RAM will make the computer run more smoothly.

Explanation

Instructions are loaded into the processor from RAM. Faster RAM will allow instructions to be loaded into the processor more quickly. RAM holds all software instructions to be carried out, so more RAM will allow the system to have more programs running at the same time.

(ii) One characteristic of RAM is that it can be increased.

Describe how two other characteristics of RAM and ROM affect their use. (4)

1 RAM is a form of temporary storage, while ROM is a form of permanent storage.

2 RAM is volatile memory and it needs electricity to hold data, while ROM is non-volatile memory and it can hold data even without electricity.

(e) Sachini chooses to recycle her old laptop.

Describe two ways in which the improper disposal of digital devices could be harmful to human health. (4)

1 When digital devices are disposed improperly, they allow the release of toxic materials such as chromium, lead, nickel, zinc, barium and flame retardants into the environment. Most of these toxic materials are carcinogenic and some of them heavily damages the kidney, the blood and the nervous system, and other sensitive parts of the body.

2 When digital devices are dumped in a landfill, some of the toxic materials released find their way into ground water and this affects animals. This has also been known to be the cause of many health issues in developing countries where the people have no or little knowledge about the demerits of dumping digital product instead of recycling.

(f) Which one of these is a type of storage media? (1)

A CD drive

B Magnetic tape

C RAM

D SSD

B Magnetic tape 

(g) The laptop can store 128GiB of data.

Construct an expression to show how many bits are in 128GiB. (3)

1 byte = 8 bits

1GiB = 1024 × 1024 × 1024 × 8 bits

128GiB = 1024 × 1024 × 1024 × 8 × 128 bits

(h) Some people cannot go online because of their religious beliefs.

List two other causes of unequal access to ICT. (2)

1 Location: People may not be able to access online systems in remote locations. For example, in rural areas or locations where wireless signals or cabling cannot reach, such as heavily forested and mountainous areas.

2 Economy and infrastructure: Countries with advanced economies can afford to invest in the infrastructure required to provide access to networks and the internet. In countries with emerging and developing economies, governments may prioritise other needs, such as food and healthcare, rather than access to digital technologies.

(Total for Question 1 = 21 marks)