Practice for your written exam

0. Reading comprehension: Read this text and answer questions 1, 2 and 3 below.

Computer systems at universities across the nation are becoming favourite targets of hackers, and rising numbers of security breaches have exposed the personal information of thousands of students, alumni and employees.

Since January 2006, at least 845,000 people have had sensitive information jeopardized in 29 security failures at universities nationwide. In these incidents, compiled by identity theft experts who monitor media reports, hackers have gained access to a great amount of information.

Cybersecurity officials woefully say hackers are realizing that colleges hold many of the same records as banks. But why hack a bank, one official asked, “when academic institutions are easier to get into?''

Hackers are drawn to universities for various reasons. Last month, several Stanford University applicants hacked into the admissions system to see if they had been accepted. And some other hackers appear to have broken into a system at the University of Castellon to find a place to store their music files. Besides, some university lecturers smugly say they post everything online, including grades and final exams.

Thus, the openness that's rooted in the nature of these institutions is partly to blame.

1. Find the words in the text that correspond to the following: [1 mark]

(a) Objectives: targets

(b) Teachers: lecturers

(d) Put at risk of loss or harm: Jeopardized

(e) Highly self-satisfied: smugly

2. What is a hacker? [0,5 marks]

A hacker refers to a person that is knowledgeable about computers and creative in computer programming, usually implying the ability to program in assembly language or low-level languages. A hacker can mean an expert programmer who finds special tricks for getting around obstacles and stretching the limits of a system.

3. Describe why hackers are breaking into computer systems at universities. [0,5 marks]

Hackers break into computer systems at universities for several reasons. Some of them, for instance, do it to store music files. Some others, to find information related to their admission.

4. Vocabulary: Provide appropriate definitions in English for the following terms. [1 mark]

(a) Compiler: A compiler is a special program which converts the source program into machine code.

(b) Bug: In computer programming, a bug refers to any error, failure or malfunction of a computer program.

(c) FTP: It’s the acronym for File Transfer Protocol, and refers to the Internet standard high-level protocol for transferring files from one machine to another over TCP/IP networks.

(d) Hyperlink: It’s a link in an HTML document that leads to another World Wide Web site, or another place within the same document. Hyperlinks are usually underlined or shown in a differentcolor from the surrounding text. Sometimes hyperlinks are pictures.

(e) Floppy disk: A floppy disk is a removable, portable magnetic disk on which data and programs can be stored. Also called diskettes, floppies are flexible plastic.

5. Listening comprehension. A personnel manager is doing an interview and taking some notes. Listen to the interview and complete his notes. [2 marks]

Name: Sara Brown

Qualifications: Degree in Computer Sciences at Aston University.

Languages: Spanish and basic Italian.

Work experience:

NCR: analyst programmer for one year.

Wrote software for general commercial use.

Programs were for use on IBM mainframes.

Database knowledge: Microsoft Access and dBase 5.

Present job: works for Intelligent Software.writing programs in COBOL and C.

Reasons for applying: wants something more demanding, with more responsibility, to learn about a new industry.