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    Take Off                                                          Century   #Critical Thinking
                                                                                                      21 st
                                                                                                     Skills
                        State whether the following statements are true or false:
                        1.   Flowchart is a set of instructions that can be followed to perform a specific task,
                           workflow or process.

                        2.   An algorithm is a set of steps in a sequential manner to solve a problem or
                           to complete a task.

                        3.   Flowcharts are used in analysing, designing, documenting or managing a
                           process or program in various fields.

                  We have already learnt that computers follow certain steps to perform any task and when we perform
                  a sequence of steps to solve any problem, it is called an algorithm. Let us now learn about computer
                  languages used to develop programs.

                       COMPUTER LANGUAGES

                  As a computer cannot understand human languages directly. So, to communicate with the computers,
                  we need some special languages which are called computer languages or programming languages.
                  The main aim of these languages is to make human-computer interaction possible and easy. A computer
                  language is the medium by which instructions are transmitted to the computer to perform a specific
                  task. It is a set of words, symbols and codes that the computer can understand. It is used to write
                  computer programs. A computer program is a set of instructions written in a programming language.
                  The process of writing a program is called programming. People who write the programs are called
                  programmers.

                  There are a number  of  programming languages  worldwide.  Some languages  were developed  for
                  specific computers, others were developed for specific uses such as scientific or business applications.
                  Computer languages are classified into two major categories:

                                                      Computer Languages

                             Low-Level Language                                    High-Level Language

                          Machine           Assembly       Third Generation     Fourth-Generation          Natural
                      Language (1GL)     Language (2GL)     Language (3GL)        Language (4GL)       Language (5GL)

                  Low-Level Language (LLL)

                  A low-level language is a programming language that is machine dependent. A program written in
                  machine dependent language runs only on one particular type of computer.

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