1 Applications of Databases in Our Daily Life

ICT Focus
Yes.

Activity 1
Wikipedia provides text-based contents while YouTube provides video clips.

Activity 2
Organization Example of transaction Required information
Hospital Registration and discharge of The number of patients and
patients available beds
Sports centre Booking of facilities Available facilities and the
number of each booked
facility
School Recording of students’ Students’ examination marks
examination marks in all of each exam
subjects
Bookstore Printing customers’ bills The number of books sold and
the price of each book
Fast food shop Recording employees’ The hourly payment and the
payments working hours of each
employee

Activity 3
Supplier Order
supplierID
supplierID
bookID
supplierName orderID
address orderDate Book
quantity bookID
phone title
‘Order’ table
price
stockOnHand
‘Supplier’ table
‘Book’ table

Activity 4

© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2010 1 NSS ICT Elective A1 Textbook Answers
 The hardware requirements of a DBMS are higher.
 The installation and maintenance cost of a DBMS is high.
 The cost of converting from a traditional file-based system to a database system is
high.
 The impact of database failure would be high if a DBMS is not well designed.
 Advanced training courses are needed for different levels of users.
(any three)

Activity 5
Function
Control of sharing of data
Control of data redundancy
Check for data consistency
Check for data integrity
Security of data
Ease of data maintenance
Comment
Yes, it provides file-level data sharing services.
Basically no. It only checks repeated names of
files in the same directory.
Basically no.
Basically no.
Yes, it provides security control (e.g. read /
write access controls) on files and directories,
but not on different data in the same file.
Yes, it provides file-level data maintenance
services only, e.g. creating, editing and deleting
files.

Concept Map
1. E
2. A
3. B
4. D
5. C

Concept Checker
1. T
2. T
3. F
4. F
5. T
6. T
7. T

© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2010 2 NSS ICT Elective A1 Textbook Answers
8. T
9. T
10. F

Multiple Choice Questions

1. D
2. D
3. A
4. D
5. C
6. A
7. D
8. D
9. C
10. C

Short Questions
1. (a) Three (2)

(b) Ann. (1) She has enrolled for two courses with ‘courseID’ ‘C101’ and
‘C305’. (2)

2. (a) Data models are relatively simple representations of the complex real-world
data structure. (1) They facilitate interactions among the database designer,
the application programmer and the end users. (1)

(b) Relational model / hierarchical model / network model / object-oriented

model (any two × 1)

3. (a) To prevent unauthorized access of database systems. (2)

(b) Delete the data from the hard disk before disposing of a computer. / Format
the hard disk before disposing of a computer. (any one × 2)

4. Advantages:
 Enable different users to share data in it.
 Have a better control of data redundancy.
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2010 3 NSS ICT Elective A1 Textbook Answers
  Improve data consistency.
 Improve data integrity.
 Improve the security of data.
 Maintain data with ease.
(any three × 1)
Disadvantages:
 The installation and maintenance cost of a DBMS could be high.
 It may have higher hardware requirements, e.g. a faster CPU, more
memory and hard disk space.
 As data is stored in a central database, if the backup and recovery solutions
are not well designed, the database failure may have higher impact.
 Experienced staff members are employed to operate and maintain the
DBMS.
 Advanced training courses are needed for different levels of users.
(any two × 1)

Long Questions
1. (a) Transaction: deducting toll from a car’s account (2)
Required data: the car’s account and the toll fee (2)

(b) When a car passes through a toll point, the car’s account instantly logs into
the toll fee collection database. The toll fee is automatically deducted from
the car’s prepaid account. (4)

(c) (i) Object-oriented model (2)

Each user’s RFID can be considered as an object. An object-oriented
database can keep track of objects that contain both data and the
actions taken on data. (2) (or any reasonable answers)
(ii)  The hardware and software that the database needs
 Data redundancy and consistency
 Security of data
 Data backup and recovery
(any three × 1)

2. (a) (i) Cash withdrawal, (1) account inquiry (1) and money transfer (1)
(ii) Object-oriented model. (1) An object-oriented database can keep track
of objects that contain both data and the actions taken on data. (2) /
Relational model. (1) A relational database can be used to store the
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2010 4 NSS ICT Elective A1 Textbook Answers
 data and the relationships (e.g. the transaction) between the data. (2)
(Actually it is an object-oriented relational database.)

(b)  Verify if Jacky has the right to log into the ATM system. (1)
 Check Jacky’s account balance to see if there is sufficient amount as
requested. (1)
 Check if Jane’s account is valid. (1)
 Deduct the amount as requested from Jacky’s account, and transfer the
amount to Jane’s account. (1)
 Ensure that Jacky logs out the ATM system. (1)

(c) Benefit for banks: They can save some manpower. (1)
Constraint for banks: Limited human interactions are involved during the
transactions. (1)
Benefit for customers: They need not go to the bank’s counter for most of
the transactions. (1)
Constraint for customers: They must access the Internet and have some
basic computer skills. (1)

© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2010 5 NSS ICT Elective A1 Textbook Answers