Name of the Organization : Computer Olympiad South Africa
Examination Name : Talent Search Olympiad 2018
Announcement : Talent Search Olympiad Intermediate Question Paper
Category : Grades 8 and 9
Year : 2017
Type : Past Papers
Website : http://olympiad.org.za/talent-search/past-papers/pen-and-paper/
Download Question Paper :
2017 TS Q Intermediate : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9838-2017TSINTER.pdf
2016 TS Q Intermediate : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9838-2016TSInter.pdf
2015 TS Q Intermediate : https://www.southafricain.com/uploads/9838-2015TSInter.pdf
Computer Talent Search Olympiad Intermediate Question Paper
** To download the 2017 Intermediate (Grades 8 and 9) paper,for 2017 TS Q Intermediate
Related : Computer Talent Search Junior Question Paper 2017 : www.southafricain.com/9832.html
** 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.
** 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
** Grades 8 and 9
** Not To Be Used Before 6 March 2017
** If you are NOT in grades 8 or 9, 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
** 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
A3 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.
A4 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
A5 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!
B1 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
B2 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.
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
C1 Bike Paths :
Cleveria is a beaver biker. She explores the one-way paths that pass through the villages in her district. Each village has a village stone labelled with a single letter. All the paths have a distance and a direction. The distance and direction are given by the flags.
Over the course of many different trips Cleveria leaves notes that include a number under a stone in each village. The notes are about the distance from village
A to the village with the note under the stone.
Question : What is the meaning of the numbers she has left under the stones? Write down the letter of your answer in the appropriate block on your answer sheet.
A: The shortest distance going through the least number of villages
B: The shortest distance from Village A to this village
C: The shortest distance to this village by taking a left turn at crossings if possible D: The shortest distance to this village by taking a right turn at crossings if possible