Products are usually tested for quality, so customers will get good products.
In software engineering, a test is used to see if the software system can do what it should. Software is tested before it is released. "Alpha" testing is where software developers check the software for bugs. Software can also be checked for quality and usability. "Beta" testing is done by groups of users.
Tests of cars and other vehicles include a crash test. The car is put under severe conditions to see what will make it fail, or deliberately crashed to measure the damage. Other machines can also be crash tested. Crash test dummies can be used instead of humans. They are placed in the car seat to see if a human in the crash would have been injured or killed.
People are tested to see what they have learned. This is often called an assessment or examination. In learning, a test item is a question, or set of questions.
Many people think tests are valuable. They believe tests:
However, academic tests are not perfect measures. Tests could only partly measure a student’s memory and maybe their understanding. The test would only be about a small part of the subject, and only at that moment in time.
People, animals and plants can also be tested for illnesses. For example, a blood test can be used to check for disease.
In science, tests can done to check for a presence of a substance, or to check the quality of something.
Time horizon
A time horizon is a future point in time when something must be "done" (a "deadline") or will be "over" (a "time limit"). Either way, the matter will be closed when the time horizon is reached.
Common time horizons people use are:
It is very important to know at what time horizon something you are doing will be scored, evaluated, marked or paid for.
Sports, for example football (soccer) and basketball, often have time limits. Baseball and others do not, which sometimes causes problems.
Time limit
A time limit is a time horizon that is imposed on everyone at once.
It may be used to try to achieve fairness in some system of ethics. For instance, if poor people and rich people are debating something, a time limit may be imposed so that the rich people cannot keep debating until the poor people have to go to work, and lose.
Time limits are very important in accounting so that everyone can report their results (for tax and investment purposes) at the same time. This in turn creates deadlines for the accountant and those reporting.
However, the deadline is imposed by an authority, whereas the time limit is imposed by a system. So there can be slack in a deadline, so that results do not have to be reported always very fast.
For example, in the United States of America, the end of the calendar year on December 31 is the time limit for taxes, but the deadline for reporting is April 15. Sometimes the government allows more time, as it did for the families of those who were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a region and country in East Asia. It is the nationalist government of China since its settlement in 1949. It is called the Republic of China (ROC) (also called "Taiwan") which is a special region comprising the island of Taiwan and nearby islands (Pescadores islands and parts of Fujian). The ROC government led by Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang abbreviated as KMT) moved to Taiwan after the Communist army took over the capital of Beijing. Currently, the ROC government governs Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Taiwan is southeast of the People's Republic of China's mainland, south of Japan, and north of the Philippines.
Taiwan has also been called Formosa, a Portuguese name which means "beautiful" in Portuguese.
The largest cities in Taiwan are the capital, Taipei, and the port city of Kaohsiung.
Most people living in Taiwan (sometimes called Taiwanese) are Han. Taiwan has three large Han groups. They speak different dialects of Chinese and their ancestors came from different places: the Southern Fujianese (from China's Fujian Province), the Hakka (from China), and Mainlanders (from Mainland China after 1948).
There are also Taiwanese Aborigines who have lived in Taiwan before the Han came to live there.
There are two Chinese governments in the world: The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). Today, in reality, the PRC government controls mainland China, and the ROC government governs Taiwan. The ROC government governed most of China mainland from 1911 to 1949, before losing control of China mainland to the PRC.
Today, people who live in Taiwan have different ideas. Although many Taiwanese think there is no freedom in China, there are still some Taiwanese who want to be united again with China. The majority of the people in Taiwan want to keep everything like it is now.
Today most countries of the world recognize the People's Republic of China as China. Even though Taiwan is not recognized by the UN as a sovereign nation, most countries still have close economic and cultural relations with Taiwan. So, both sides are not making any big changes from the political status quo. This policy was expressed in a 1992 Consensus among some leaders of both sides.
In March 2004, China's government passed a law called the Anti-Secession Law. The law requires the Chinese military to invade Taiwan immediately if they declare independence. The law shows China's concern over a growing move towards independence by the government of Taiwan.
The island of Taiwan is about 180 kilometers off the southeastern coast of China. It is across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of . The East China Sea is to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest.
Taiwan's highest point is Yu Shan (Jade Mountain). It is 3,952 meters high (12,966 ft). There are five other peaks over 3,500 meters.
The Penghu Islands are west of the main island. They have an area of . More distant islands controlled by the Republic of China are the Kinmen, Wuchiu and Matsu Islands off the coast of Fujian. They have a total area of . The Pratas Islands and Taiping Island in the South China Sea have a total area of . They have no permanent inhabitants.
The largest cities in Taiwan are:
Trademark
A trademark (or trade mark) is a way for a business to help people to identify the products that the business makes from products made by another business. A trademark can be a name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or picture. It can only be used on things made by the business that owns the trademark.
For example, Coca-Cola and Coke are trademark names for a certain drink made by the Coca-Cola Company. No other business can use these names or any names similar to them. Other businesses can make a drink that is similar, like colas soft drinks, but they have to use a different name for their drink, such as Pepsi.
Another example is the Nike company which makes sporting goods like shoes and clothes. The "swoosh" symbol used on their products is a trademark.
Famous trademarks like Coca-Cola and Nike are used for branding whole families of products.
Trademarks are protected by law. In some countries, a person or company can get a trademark simply by using the name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or picture on its products.
Trademarks can also be registered. In that case, the business tells the government of its country that it wants to use a certain name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design or picture as a trademark for the products it sells. If no other person or business is using the trademark to sell those products, then the government will list that trademark. Once it is listed, no one else can use that trademark for those products. This is called "registering" the trademark.