Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests Read online

h a v e > h o v e > L O V E

  See if you can convert BREAD into WHEET. You can use the clues in brackets to

  help you.

  BREAD

  ______ (have/raise young animals)

  ______ (someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric)

  CHEEP (sound a small bird makes)

  ______ (not expensive)

  ______ (copy during an exam)

  WHEAT

  Keys to Chapter 2

  23

  Keys to Chapter 2

  Riddles

  What is at the end of a rainbow? The letter W!

  What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in one thousand

  years? The letter M

  What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Short

  What is the longest word in the dictionary? Smiles, because there is a mile

  between each ‘s’

  We see it once in a year, twice in a week, and never in a day. What is it? The

  letter “E”

  What is the center of Gravity? The letter V.

  What starts with the letter “t”, is filled with “t” and ends in “t”? A teapot!

  Take away my first letter, and I still sound the same. Take away my last letter, I still sound the same. Even take away my letter in the middle, I will still

  sound the same. I am a five letter word. What am I? EMPTY

  What has 4 eyes but can’t see? Mississippi

  What starts with “P” and ends with “E” and has more than 1000 letters? A

  post office!

  Funny Book Titles

  I Didn’t Do It! by Ivan Alibi = I have an alibi

  The Great Escape by Freida Convict = freed a convict (i.e. a convict was

  freed)

  Under Arrest by Watts E Dunn = What has he done?

  Unsolved Mysteries by N. Igma = Enigma (mystery)

  It’s a Shocker by Alec Tricity = Electricity

  24

  Keys to Chapter 2

  Logic 1

  Only one. Take it from the box labeled “Dime and Nickel”. Since you know

  all three boxes are mislabeled, the box contains two coins of the denomination

  you withdrew. Put the proper label on that box. Then simply switch the two

  remaining labels.

  Logic 2

  All they need to do is tilt the barrel at 45 degrees. If the edge of the surface of the beer touches the lip of the barrel at the same time as it touches the bottom of the barrel, then it must be half full/empty.

  Proverbs

  1. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

  2. Don’t wash your dirty linen in public.

  3. It’s no use crying over spilt milk.

  4. There’s no point flogging a dead horse.

  5. Necessity is the mother of invention.

  6. Once bitten twice shy.

  7. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

  8. Some people can’t see the wood for the trees.

  9. A watched pot never boils.

  10. You can’t have your cake and eat it.

  Word Combinations 1

  armchair, backwards, earring, fingernail, hairstyle, headline, lipstick,

  necklace

  Word Combinations 2

  flashback, facelift, handsome, headfirst, kneecap, legend, spineless, tooth-

  brush, voiceless/invoice, wristwatch

  Keys to Chapter 2

  25

  Tense Challenge 1 (Simple Past vs Past Perfect)

  The Queen of Sheba was desperate - her best friend, Rowenna, had been cap-

  tured by the terrible Bingoid tribe, and she needed someone to rescue her. She had three faithful knights, all of whom were equally courageous. But she

  needed to find a way of discovering which of these three knights was intelligent enough to rescue Rowenna.

  So she decided to set the knights a test. She blindfolded each man and put a cap on each of their heads.

  “Knights listen to your queen,” she said, “each of you is now wearing a red or

  a blue cap. When I take off your blindfolds, you are to raise your hand as soon

  as you see a black cap. But as soon as you know what color cap you yourself

  are wearing, put your hand down.”

  She took off their blindfolds and straightaway all the knights put up their

  hands, because the Queen had in fact put a black cap on all of them. After a few minutes, one of the knights, Sir Galawas, dropped his hand and pro-claimed: “My cap is black”.

  How did Sir Galawas know that his cap was black?

  # If Sir Galawas’s cap had been white, either one of his rivals would have

  known that his own was black, for the remaining man’s raised hand showed

  that he saw a black cap, and that couldn’t be Sir Galawas’s if his were white.

  Neither of the other two knights put their hands down to show they knew the

  color of their own cap, so Sir Galawas’s couldn’t have been white.

  Ambiguous Headlines

  Panda mating fails; vet takes over = It seems like the vet decided to mate with

  the panda.

  Miners refuse to work after death = The ‘death’ in reality refers to a fellow

  miner. But here it seems like the miners have voted not to work after they have

  died.

  Juvenile court to try shooting defendant = The ‘shooting defendant’ is some-

  one who has been accused of shooting someone. To ‘try’ means to decide if

  someone is guilty or innocent. But here it seems that the members of the court

  are going to attempt to shoot the defendant.

  Killer sentenced to die for second time in 10 years. = It seems like this is the second time the killer is going to die.

  26

  Keys to Chapter 2

  Red tape holds up new bridge = ‘red tape’ is a metaphor for bureaucracy. The

  real meaning is that bureaucracy is delaying the construction or opening or a

  bridge. But it seems that the new bridge is being held together by red tape (i.e.

  a narrow strip of material).

  Astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft = Gas also means the gas produced by the human body.

  Plane too close to the ground, crash probe told = This is not really ambiguous

  but simply ridiculous: if it crashed, it was obviously too close to the ground.

  Local high school dropouts cut in half = A ‘dropout’ is someone who drops

  out of school, i.e. stops going to school. The real meaning is that the number

  of dropouts has fallen by 50%, but it seems that the poor students have had the

  top half of their body removed from the bottom half.

  Sex education delayed, teachers request training = The training should refer

  to the teacher’s skills in teaching sex education, but it seems like the teachers want to learn how to have sex themselves.

  Riddles 2

  1. race

  2. age

  3. take

  4. months

  5. feathers

  6. holes

  7. round

  8. success

  9. dead

  10. lose

  Keys to Chapter 2

  27

  Logic 3

  A = the 8-pint jug, B = 5, C = 3

  The English starts with the following situation:

  A B C

  8 0 0

  He then continues as follows

  A B C

  3 5 0 (5 from A to B)

  3 2 3 (3 from B to C)

  6 2 0 (3 from C to A)

  6 0 2 (2 from B to C)

  1 5 2 (5 from A to B)

  1 4 3 (1 from B to C)

  4 4 0 (3 from C to A)

  Anagrams 2

  curse

  dairy

  leads

  layer

  heart

  three

/>   filed

  stage

  wrong

  waste

  28

  Keys to Chapter 2

  Tense Challenge 2 (Active vs Passive)

  An American scientist wanted to prove that the Loch Ness monster exists so

  he decided to prove it. All his photographic equipment was sent from the USA to Loch Ness in Scotland where the scientist put it on a large boat. The scientist then spent a week on the Loch waiting for the monster to appear. Suddenly one night there was a terrible crash and the scientist found himself face to face with the monster under the water. His boat was smashed to pieces by the monster, and the oil, which powered the boat, leaked onto the Loch. Every day the

  oil slick doubled in size and Scottish environmental groups became/were become very worried. After 13 days half the Loch was covered by the oil slick.

  Answer: One more day.

  Word Ladder

  BREAD

  BREED (have/raise young animals)

  CREEP (someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric)

  CHEEP (sound a small bird makes)

  CHEAP (not expensive)

  CHEAT (copy during an exam)

  WHEAT

  Chapter 3

  The scientist should treasure the riddles

  he can’t solve

  Rhyming Forms

  The words below may look very strange but they are actually used in every day

  conversation. Can you match the word (1-10) with its meaning (a-j)?

  1. hotch potch

  2. humdrum

  3. itsy bitsy

  4. jet set

  5. knick knack

  6. mumbo jumbo

  7. namby pamby

  8. okey dokey

  9. pooper scooper

  10. prime time

  a) device for collecting dog excrement

  b) insipid character

  c) meaningless mystical nonsense

  d) mixture

  e) monotonous routine

  f) OK

  g) period when TV audience viewing is at its highest

  h) rich elite

  i) useless device

  j) very small

  © Springer International Publishing AG 2018

  29

  A. Wallwork, Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests, Easy English!,

  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_3

  30

  Tongue Twister

  Practise reading the tongue twister aloud. Then see if you can memorize and say it quickly without getting your tongue tied!

  She sells seashells by the seashore.

  The shells she sells are surely seashells.

  So if she sells shells on the seashore,

  I’m sure she sells seashore shells.

  Riddles

  Match the questions (1-10) with the answers (a -j).

  1. What’s the best thing about Switzerland?

  2. What is the color of the wind?

  3. Who earns a living by driving his/her customers away?

  4. What breaks when you say it?

  5. What instrument can you hear but never see?

  6. What do you call a fish with no eyes?

  7. What comes down but never goes up?

  8. A lawyer, a plumber and a hat maker were walking down the street. Who had

  the biggest hat?

  9. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?

  10. Can you name the two days starting with T besides Tuesday and Thursday?

  a) A fsh.

  b) A taxi driver.

  c) Blew.

  d) I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.

  e) Nine!

  f) Rain

  g) Silence!

  h) The one with the biggest head.

  i) Today and tomorrow.

  j) Your voice!

  31

  Cryptic Meaning

  What does the following mean? Hint: Try to read it aloud. YY = two Ys

  YY UR

  YY UB

  I C U R

  YY 4 ME

  Funny Book Titles

  Try to understand why the author of the book is appropriate to the title/topic of the book.

  I Lived in Detroit by Helen Earth

  I Love Mathematics by Adam Up

  I Was a Cloakroom Attendant by Mahatma Coate

  I Win! by U. Lose

  I Say So! by Frank O. Pinion

  Animal Idioms

  A famous English idiom is ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’, but where does it come

  from? It goes back to Norse mythology and to sailors who associated cats with

  heavy rain and dogs with storms and the wind.

  See if you can match the idiom with its meaning.

  1. a dark horse

  a) have an obsession about something

  2. a little bird told me

  b) something expensive and worthless

  3. a night owl

  c) do something very badly

  4. a white elephant

  d) avoids saying directly how you heard

  news

  5. donkey’s years

  e) very little space

  6. not enough room to swing a cat

  f) going back a long time into the past

  7. till the cows come home

  g) for an indefinitely long time into the

  future

  8. to have a bee in one’s bonnet

  h) someone who stays up late

  9. to make a pig’s ear of something

  i) person whose true value is unknown

  10. to smell a rat/something fishy

  j) suspect that something is wrong

  32

  Anagrams

  Create an anagram from the letters of the words in the first column. The anagram should correspond to the definition.

  anagram

  definition

  lakes

  loss of water

  steal

  stories

  smart

  means of transport in a town

  warms

  a group of bees altogether

  miles

  something on your face that shows that you are happy

  items

  x as in 5 x 5 = 20

  means

  something that is given to use by our parents

  melon

  a citrus fruit

  needs

  thick

  newer

  make new again

  Limericks

  Practise reading the limericks aloud and hear/find the rhythm.

  There was an old dame of Dunbar,

  A canner exceedingly canny,

  Who took the 4.4 to Forfar;

  One morning remarked to his granny:

  But went on to Dundee,

  “A canner can can

  So she travelled, you see

  Anything that he can

  Too far by 4.4. from Forfar.

  But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”

  Mathematical 1

  Arrange the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0, in a way that the total comes to 100.

  Each figure can only be written once.

  Mathematical 2

  Three friends to a restaurant and have a really good meal. The bill comes to £30, so they each pay £10. But because they are regular customers, the manager gives them a discount of £5. They decide to leave the waiter a £2 tip and then they divide the rest equally between them. Thus they have only spent £9 each = £27 + £2 tip = £29.

  So where has the other £1 gone?

  33

  Mathematical 3

  A little girl is getting dressed to go out to a birthday party. Her mother has bought her a new dress and she looks very pretty indeed. She is just about to take her socks out of the drawer when there’s a blackout and she’s left completely in the dark. In the drawer there are only white and black socks. How many socks will she have to pull out before getting a pair of the same color? />
  Pseudodromes

  Pseudodrome are palindromes in which words, rather than individual letters, read the same backwards or forwards.

  Bores are people what say people are bores.

  Women understand men, few men understand women.

  Dollars make men covetous, then covetous men make dollars.

  Girl, bathing on Bikini, eyeing boy, finds boy eyeing bikini on bathing girl.

  Tense Challenge

  Underline the correct form of the verbs in italics.

  In Medieval times jesters were very much a part of the royal courts of Europe. One particular court jester made a fortune traveling from country to country playing the following trick on unsuspecting monarchs.

  On seeing the king, queen or whoever he would say: “I bet/will bet that if I tell/will tell you a really big lie, you give/ will give me a pot of gold.”

  One day he decided to go to England and arriving at His Majesty’s palace he

  demanded to see the king, he then announced his challenge and added:

  “If you agree/will agree to my proposal, you end/ will end up giving me a pot of gold. I am/will be the best liar in the world you know!

  “OK then,” replied the king wearily, “if you tell/will tell me a really big lie, I will give you a pot of gold”.

  The jester smiled and continued:

  “You owe/will owe my father a pot full of gold. You lost it to him 25 years ago at poker and you never paid him back.”

  “But I’ve never even met your father,” protested the king, “that’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.”

  The king then realised that he had been fooled and that he would have to pay the jester. Why?

  34

  Word Ladder

  Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, enjoyed converting one word into another by changing one letter at a time. For example: H A T E > h a v e > h o v e > L O V E

  See if you can convert MICE into RATS. You can use the clues in brackets to help you.

  MICE

  _____ (staple diet of much of the world)

  _____ (competition)

  _____ (assign a rank or rating to)

  RATS

  Keys to Chapter 3

  35

  Keys to Chapter 3

  Rhyming Forms

  hotch potch - mixture

  humdrum - monotonous routine

  itsy bitsy - very small

  jet set - rich elite

  knick knack - useless device

  mumbo jumbo - meaningless mystical nonsense

  namby pamby - insipid character

  okey dokey - OK

  pooper scooper - device for collecting dog excrement

  prime time - period when TV audience viewing is at its highest

  Riddles 1

  What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big