Questão 2557309

INSTRUCTION: Choose the CORRECT alternative to answer questions 17 to 20, according to TEXT 1.

TEXT 1

When was the first computer invented?

The word "computer" was first recorded as being used in 1613 and was originally used to describe a human who performed calculations or computations. The definition of a computer remained the same until the end of the 19th century when people began to realize machines never get tired and can perform calculations much faster and more accurately than any team of human computers ever could.

In 1822, Charles Babbage began developing the Difference Engine, which was considered to be the first automatic computing engine. It was capable of computing several sets of numbers and making hard copies of the results. Unfortunately, because of funding he was never able to complete a full-scale functional version of this machine. In June of 1991, the London Science Museum completed the Difference Engine Nº 2 for the bicentennial year of Babbage's birth and later completed the printing mechanism in 2000.

Fonte: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm Acesso em: 15/10/2013

The main function of text 1 is to