Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests Read online

  Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted. The ambiguous word here is belted which means i) ‘with their safety belts on’, ii) hit with a

  belt as a form of corporal punishment.

  A quarter of a million Chinese live on water. In reality these Chinese have constructed housing on the water, but ‘live on water’ sounds like they survive

  simply by consuming water and nothing else.

  Old school pillars are replaced by alumni. The alumni have removed the old pillars and put new pillars in their place. But it sounds like the alumni are now being used as pillars.

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  Keys to Chapter 5

  Palindromes

  The extra words are in italics.

  No lemons and no melon.

  Ten animals I now slam in a net.

  Some men interpret the nine memos.

  Evil is a not name of a foeman, as I live.

  Marge lets Norah to see Sharon’s telegram.

  Anagrams 2

  males

  spare

  spelt

  ropes

  drops

  quiet

  sport

  tears

  throw

  share

  Colorful Idioms

  be in someone’s black books - when a person is angry with you

  have the blues - feel depressed or sad

  be not as green as one’s cabbage looking - not as inexperienced as one looks

  a grey area - something which seems unidentifiable

  a golden handshake - a substantial sum of money paid to someone leaving a

  company

  red tape - bureaucratic formalities

  see red - be extremely angry

  as white as a sheet - very pale in a state of shock or very ill

  be yellow - act in a cowardly way

  Keys to Chapter 5

  65

  Mathematical 1

  Only one. Weigh one coin from the first stack, two from the second, and so

  forth. The number of grams by which the total is light will correspond to the

  number of the counterfeit stack.

  Mathematical 2

  5 euros. Imagine you initially both have 10 euros. If you give her 5 you will

  now only have 5 yourself and she will have 15, giving the 10 euros difference

  that you require.

  Mathematical 3

  $2000. The total amount of money she spends is £7000 + $9000 = $16,000.

  The money she receives is $8000 and $10,000 = $18,000. The difference

  between them is $2000.

  QWERTY or CWAZY?

  Each sentence contains every letter of the alphabet. The sentences are gram-

  matically correct, but have little real meaning.

  Grammar Challenge: Articles

  Some time Ø last year in a small town on the east coast of an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, a kidnapping took place. It all went exactly to plan. The kidnappers drew up to Mr X, an important judge, just as he was leaving court, bundled him into a stolen car, blindfolded him and took him out to a hiding place in the country. A ransom note, made from newspaper cuttings, was sent to the police. However after three days of waiting, the police had made no contact and there was no money to be seen.

  After a week, the terrorists, tired and disappointed, condemned Mr X to death.

  But the terrorist leader was not completely cold-hearted and left the choice of death to Mr X.

  Mr X, despite a week of tension, had not lost his sense of humor and in a bid for time asked the terrorist leader: “What deaths have you got in stock?”

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  Keys to Chapter 5

  “Anything from the electric chair to Ø arsenic,” replied the leader.

  Mr X refused all the leader’s suggestions - electrocution was too “shocking”,

  being starved “rather tasteless”, hanging was out of the question as he hated

  being “kept in suspense”, poisoning made his “stomach turn” and drowning

  just left him “cold”.

  He had virtually decided on the quickest solution, being shot, when he had a brain-wave. He got up, told the leader of his choice of death and walked away

  a free man.

  What death did he choose?

  Answer: Old age.

  Similes

  as quick as lightning

  as quiet as a mouse

  as safe as houses

  as sharp as a needle

  as sly as a fox

  as steady as a rock

  as sweet as honey

  as thick as a brick

  as ugly as sin

  as white as a sheet

  Keys to Chapter 5

  67

  Smileys

  :<>

  Amazed

  :-ll

  Angry

  (((H)))

  Big Hug

  :-X

  Big Kiss

  :-C

  Can’t believe it

  :-S

  Confused

  :’-(

  Crying

  :-@!

  Cursing

  :-e

  Disappointed

  :-|

  Disgusted

  :*)

  Drinking every

  night

  :#)

  Drunk

  Proverbs

  Beg gars can’t be choosers Don’t be critical of something that you are going to get for free.

  Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t The current situation, however bad, may be better than a change for something that may be worse.

  Blood is thicker than water Family ties are stronger than other relationships.

  Do as I say, not as I do Follow my advice rather than looking at my actions.

  Don’t count your chickens before they hatch Do not automatically assume that something will turn out right before it actually happens.

  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth Don’t criticize a present that you receive.

  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket Spread your options.

  Every cloud has a silver lining There is always something positive in every apparently bad event.

  Fools rush in where angels fear to tread The inexperienced often become

  involved in difficult situations that more intelligent people would avoid.

  Give someone an inch and they will take a mile If you give a little to someone they will then ask for more (an inch is a very small measurement, a mile is very big)

  Chapter 6

  Words are, of course, the most powerful

  drug used by mankind

  Symbols

  Can you work out why the words in the second column are an explanation of the

  letters and symbols in the first column?

  cu@

  see you at

  l&n

  landing

  pl&

  planned

  po$bl

  possible

  s^

  what’s up?

  th@

  that

  ura*

  you are a star

  x

  kiss

  xoxox

  hugs and

  kisses

  © Springer International Publishing AG 2018

  69

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

  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_6

  70

  Contractions

  Match the contractions in the first column with their full forms in the second column.

  ain’t

  a cup of (tea)

  betchu

  could have

  betta

  give me

  coulda

  has not, am

  not

  cuppa

  have you got

  ..?

  dunno

  hi there

  gimme

  I am going to
>
  gonna

  I bet you

  gotta ...? I don’t know

  gotta

  I had better

  hiya

  is he

  izzy

  kind of

  kinda

  I have got to

  Riddles

  Choose the correct answer. In some cases more than one answer may be correct.

  I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean and yet remain dry. What am I?

  a) a shadow b) a nest c) the water

  I went into the woods and got it. I sat down to seek it. I brought it home with me because I couldn’t find it. What am I?

  a) a ring b) a fairy c) a splinter

  I am weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I’ll make it lighter.

  What am I?

  a) hydrogen b) a hole c) the man on the moon

  I’m as light as a feather, yet the strongest man can’t hold me for much more than a minute. What am I?

  a) breath b) fire c) life

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  I’m where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow’s in the middle. What am I?

  a) a time machine b) a dictionary c) the future

  The man who needs me doesn’t know it. What am I?

  a) a woman b) religion c) a coffin

  I run over fields and woods all day. Under the bed at night I sit not alone. My tongue hangs out, up and to the rear, awaiting to be filled in the morning. What am I?

  a) shoe b) grass c) a politician.

  Throw me off the highest building, and I’ll not break. But put me in the ocean, and I will. What am I?

  a) an egg b) a regret c) a tissue

  Lighter than what I’m made of, more of me is hidden than is seen. What am I?

  a) an iceberg b) an ice cream c) a nice dream

  I fly, yet I have no wings. I cry, yet I have no eyes. Darkness follows me; lower light I never see. What am I?

  a) a magician b) a short story c) a cloud

  Forward I’m heavy, backwards I’m not. What am I?

  a) a ton b) a gram c) a kilo

  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 BLACK into WHITE. You can use the clues in brackets to

  help you.

  BLACK

  ______ (with nothing written on it)

  ______ (rapid movement with eyes)

  LINK (short light metallic sound)

  CHINK (a narrow opening)

  CHINE (cut of meat or fish)

  ______ (noise made by animal or child when unhappy)

  WHITE

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  Anagrams

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

  anagram

  definition

  shout

  Opposite of north.

  edits

  Movement of the seas.

  tales

  Synonym of ‘rob’.

  slope

  These are found at the extreme north and south of the

  spare

  earth.

  spark

  A kind of fruit.

  fiber

  Public green areas.

  canoe

  Short.

  react

  The Pacific and Atlantic are examples of this.

  swing

  Find by investigation.

  What birds use to fly with.

  Rhyming Words

  These pairs of words look as if they should rhyme, but not many of them do. Which ones do rhyme?

  age

  cage

  and

  wand

  ash

  wash

  aunt

  haunt

  eased ceased

  eight

  weight

  host

  ghost

  limb

  climb

  loud

  cloud

  one

  bone

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  Proverbs

  Match the proverbs (1-10) with their explanations (a-j).

  1. God helps those who help themselves

  2. His/her bark is worse than his/her bite

  3. If at first you don’t succeed try, try again

  4. It takes two to tango

  5. Let bygones be bygones

  6. Let sleeping dogs lie

  7. Look after number one

  8. Love is blind

  9. Make hay while the sun shines

  10. Many hands make light work

  a) A job is done more quickly if a lot of people share in the work.

  b) Avoid making trouble if you do not need to.

  c) Don’t rely on other people.

  d) Forget about unpleasant things or problems that happened in the past.

  e) He or she may not be as bad-tempered as they appear.

  f) If you are patient and persevere you will eventually achieve your goal.

  g) Some things you can’t do just by yourself.

  h) Sometimes it pays to put yourself in first position.

  i) Take advantage of opportunities and good conditions while you can.

  j) Your positive emotions towards someone are not always rationale.

  Limericks

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

  There was an old man of Madrid

  There was a young man from Japan

  Who ate sixty eggs - yes, he did!

  Whose limericks never would scan.

  When they asked ‘Are you faint?’

  When asked why that was,

  He replied ‘No, I ain’t

  He replied ‘It’s because

  But I don’t feel as well as I did.’

  I always try to cram as many words into

  the last line as I possibly can’.

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  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. back pack

  2. big wig

  3. boob tube

  4. brain drain

  5. chit chat

  6. clap trap

  7. fat cat

  8. fuddy duddy

  9. higgledy piggledy

  10. hot shot

  a) bag worn on the back

  b) boring person who is stuck in their ways

  c) important person

  d) item of clothing worn by woman over her chest

  e) light conversation

  f) nonsense

  g) not straight

  h) rich, successful person

  i) someone destined for success

  j) tendency for highly qualified people (typically scientists) to leave their country Special Words

  What is special about this word?

  NOON

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  Tense Challenge

  A basketball manager needed 30 million dollars rebuilding/to rebuild his club’s stadium. Hoping finding/to find the finances he needed, the manager went to a rich business man, Mr Dollar, whose whole life had been dedicated to making/make

  money. Mr Dollar, spotting an opportunity to make a good return on this investment, agreed lending/ to lend the manager the money.

  It took six months rebuilding/to rebuild the stadium. But on the first day of the new basketball season, some rival fans burnt down part of the stadium.

  Mr Dollar, worrying/to worry about this situation, immediately telephoned the manager asking/ to ask him for the 20 million dollars. But the manager said he didn’t have the money. So Mr Dollar told the manager meeting/ to meet him at his office car park and coming/ to come with his best player, Micky Jordan.

  The three men met a
t the car park and Mr Dollar said to the manager: “If you give me your best player, I will cancel your debt.”

  Looking/ To look at Mr Dollar right in the eye, the manager replied. “If I give you Micky Jordan, no one will come to watch my team play”.

  “OK” said Mr Dollar. “Look at these stones on the ground. They are all black and white. I will pick up two stones, a black one and a white one and put them into this little bag. If Micky picks out a black stone from this bag, then you will have to give him to me. But if he picks out the white one, then he will be free and I will cancel your debt.” Not being/to be in a position to argue, the manager reluctantly agreed.

  Mr Dollar picked up two stones and put them in his bag, but Micky noticed that Mr Dollar had put two black stones in his bag. How did Micky find a way resolving/ to resolve the situation?

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  Riddles

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

  1. What is at the end of a rainbow?

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

  years?

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

  4. What is the longest word in the dictionary?

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

  6. What is the center of gravity?

  7. What starts with the letter “t”, is filled with “t” and ends in “t”?

  8. 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?

  9. What has 4 eyes but can’t see?

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

  a) A post office

  b) A teapot

  c) EMPTY

  d) Mississippi

  e) Short

  f) Smiles, because there is a mile between each ‘s’

  g) The letter “E”

  h) The letter M

  i) The letter V.

  j) The letter W!

  Mathematical 1

  Bob the chauffeur always arrives at the train station at exactly five o’clock to pick up his boss and drive her home. One day Bob’s boss arrives an hour early, starts walking home some of the way home before Bob picks her up. She arrives at home

  twenty minutes earlier than usual. How long had she walked before she met Bob the chauffeur?

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  Mathematical 2

  It was a windy day and ten people wearing hats were walking towards a supermar-

  ket. Suddenly the wind blew all their hats off. A young girl, who was passing by, picked up all the hats and without asking who the hats belonged to, gave each person a hat. What are the chances of exactly nine people getting their own hat back?