As programs grow, putting all the code in one long sequence becomes hard to read, test and change. Decomposition is the practice of breaking a problem into smaller, well-defined sub-problems and giving each one its own function. Instead of one 200-line script, you might have read_scores(), average(), grade_for() and print_report(), and a short main section that calls them in order. Reading the main section then tells you the whole story of the program in a few lines, and each detail lives in one clearly named place.
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