Name of the Organization : Computer Olympiad South Africa
Examination Name : Talent Search Olympiad 2018
Announcement : Talent Search Olympiad Junior Question Paper
Category : Grades 6 and 7
Year : 2017
Type : Past Papers
Website : http://olympiad.org.za/talent-search/past-papers/pen-and-paper/
Download Question Paper :
2017 TS Q Junior : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9832-2017TSJUNIOR.pdf
2016 TS Q Junior : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9832-2016TSJunior.pdf
2015 TS Q Junior : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9832-2015TSJunior.pdf
Computer Talent Search Olympiad Junior Question Paper
** The Talent Search is the South African version of the Bebras Contest which attracts more than a million participants in the rest of the world each year.
Related : Computer Talent Search Elementary Question Paper 2017 : www.southafricain.com/9827.html
** The Talent Search is an online test, but for those schools with inadequate connectivity a pen-and-paper version is available which does not require computers.
Instructions
** Not To Be Used Before 6 March 2017
** If you are NOT in grade 6 or 7, please report that you have the wrong paper.
** Only when the teacher says “START”, may you begin.
1. Write your personal details and your answers on the answer sheet provided.
2. You will have 45 minutes to complete the 15 tasks.
3. You may answer the questions in any order, but it is important to place the answer in the correct line on the answer sheet.
4. Leave the tasks you find difficult for later.
The mark allocation is as follows :
A section: +6 marks for every correct answer.
B section: +7 marks for every correct answer.
C section: +7 marks for every correct answer.
** If you do not answer a question or answer correctly, you get 0 (zero) for that task.
** The maximum mark is 100.
** Wait for the teacher to say “START”.
Sample Questions
A1 Beaver Code :
Barbara has been given two stamps. With one she can produce a little flower, with the other a little sun. Being a clever girl, she thinks of a way to write her own name by using the code below:
So “Barbara” becomes: She then writes the names of her friends. Unfortunately they all got mixed up.
Question: Whose name is written below? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: Abby
B: Arya
C: Barry
D: Ray
A2 Robot Exit :
Help the robot to exit the maze. Give the robot a set of instructions. The robot will repeat these instructions 4 times. The only commands the robot knows are:
L = move one block to the left
D = move one block down
R = move one block to the right
U = move one block up
Task: Choose the set of instructions that will get the robot to the exit. Write the letter in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A3 Bottles :
A Beaver puts five bottles on a table. He places them so that every bottle has a bit showing. He places the first bottle at the back of the table and puts each new bottle in front of those already placed.
Question : In what order are the bottles placed if they appear as shown in the picture above? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: E D C B A
B: D B C A E
C: E C D A B
D: D C E B A
A4 Shelf Sort :
Beatrix is trying to rearrange her shelf. She has two rules:
1. Rectangular items must not be next to each other.
2. Circular items must not be next to rectangular items.
Question: Which one of these shelves has followed her rules correctly? Write the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A5 Bus Stop :
The homes of five beavers are shown on the map below.
The Beavers want to put a bus stop in one of the places marked by hexagons. All the hexagons are 10m apart. The beavers decide that the sum of the distances from their homes to the bus stop must be as short as possible.
Question: Write down the letter of the best place for the bus stop in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
B1 Secret Messages :
Agents Boris and Bertha communicate using secret messages. Boris wants to send Bertha the secret message:
MEETBILLYBEAVERAT6
He writes each character in a 4 column grid from left to right and row by row starting from the top. He puts an X in any unused spaces. The result is shown below.
Then he creates the secret message by reading the characters from top to bottom and column by column starting from the left:
MBYVTEIBE6ELERXTLAAX Bertha then uses the same method to reply to Boris. The secret message she sends him is: OIERKLTEILH!WBEX
Question : What message does Bertha send back? Write the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: OKWHERETOMEET!
B: OKIWILLBETHERE!
C: WILLYOUBETHERETOO?
D: OKIWILLMEETHIM!
B2 Car Trip :
A self-driving car needs to take a beaver to school. The car is programmed so that it only uses these 3 instructions:
Forward (F): go forward until you cannot go forward anymore
Left (L): turn 90° left
Right (R): turn 90° right
Question: Which set of instructions (a program) will get the beaver to his school? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: F L F L F L F L F L F
B: F L F L F L F R F R F L F
C: F R F R F R F L F R F
D: F L F L F R F R F R F
B3 Blossom :
Jane is playing a computer game. First the computer secretly chooses colours for five buds without showing the colours. The available colours for each flower are blue, orange, and pink. Jane has to guess which flower has which colour. She makes her first five guesses and presses the Blossom button to make the buds blossom. The buds, whose colours she guessed correctly, break into flowers. The others remain as buds.
Jane then has another go at guessing and presses the Blossom button again.
Question : What colours did the computer choose for the flowers? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: blue pink blue orange orange
B: pink blue blue blue orange
C: pink blue blue pink orange
D: pink pink blue pink orange
B4 Party Guests :
To arrange a dinner party Sara the beaver needs to talk to five friends: Alicia, Beat, Caroline, David and Emil.
Sara can talk to Emil right away. However, to talk to her other friends, there are a few points to consider:
1- Before she talks to David, she must first talk to Alicia.
2- Before she talks to Beat, she must first talk to Emil.
3- Before she talks to Caroline, she must first talk to Beat and David.
4- Before she talks to Alicia, she must first talk to Beat and Emil.
Question :In what order should Sara talk to her friends if she wants to talk to all of them? Write down the letter of the correct answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: Alicia, Beat, Caroline, David, Emil
B: Emil, David, Caroline, Beat, Alicia
C: Caroline, David, Alicia, Beat, Emil
D: Emil, Beat, Alicia, David, Caroline
B5 Soccer Game :
The Beaver Rangers have been playing a soccer game against the Forest Raiders. Here are the goal scorers:
minute 1: Anna
minute 10: Dick
minute 35: Bernard
minute 47: Smithy
minute 73: Backy
minute 89: Richard
Question: If we know that only one team manages to score two goals in a row, which of the following can NOT be the final score? Write the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: 3-3
B: 5-1
C: 2-4
D: 4-2
C1 Concurrent Directions :
In a warehouse, three robots always work as a team. When the team gets a direction instruction (N, S, E, W), all robots in the grid will move one square in that direction at the same time. After following a list of instructions, the robots all pick up the object found in their final square. For example, if we give the instructions N, N, S, S, E to the team, then robot A will pick up a cone, robot B will pick up a ring, and robot C will pick up a cone.
Question: Which list of instructions can be sent to the robots so that the team picks up exactly a sphere, a cone, and a ring? Write down the letter of the correct instructions in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: N, E, E, E
B: N, E, E, S, E
C: N, N, S, E, N
D: N, E, E, S, W
C2 Magic Potions :
Betaro Beaver has discovered five new magic potions: ? one makes ears longer ? another makes teeth longer ? another makes whiskers curly ? another turns the nose white ? the last one turns eyes white. Betaro put each magic potion into a separate beaker. He put pure water into another beaker, so there are six beakers in total. The beakers are labeled A to F. The problem is, he forgot to record which beaker contains which magic potion! To find out which potion is in each beaker, Betaro set up the following experiments:
Experiment 1: A beaver drinks from beakers A, B and C together – the effects are shown in Figure 1.
Experiment 2: A beaver drinks from beakers A, D and E together – the effects are shown in Figure 2.
Experiment 3: A beaver drinks from beakers C, D and F together – the effects are shown in Figure 3.
Question : Which beaker contains pure water? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.