A miss is as good as a mile - It doesn’t matter by how far you have missed your target.
A stitch in time saves nine - if you fix something or solve a problem straight away you will save time later.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder - When you are away from your loved
one, you fall even more in love.
Actions speak louder than words - What you do is more important than what you say.
All good things must come to an end - Enjoyable experiences don’t last
forever
B eauty is only skin deep - What is important is someone’s character not their appearance.
Riddles
1. There weren’t any stairs, it was a one storey house!
2. The one with the tiger behind it, because if it hasn’t eaten in 7 years it’s dead.
3. Friday is his horse’s name!
4. He fell off the 2nd step.
5. The fishing trip consists of a grandfather, a father and a son.
6. None of them, because you can’t get a banana from a coconut tree!
7. The president!
8. Glass
9. All 12 months!
10. The match.
11. His breath!
12. If you answered Nunu, you are wrong. It’s Mary!
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Keys to Chapter 4
Funny Book Titles
Cry Wolf by Al Armist - to cry wolf means to claim that something bad has happened when in reality it hasn’t. The author’s name is alarmist.
It’s Unfair! by Y. Me - why me?
Surprised! by Omar Gosh - oh my gosh (a typical exclamation. gosh is used instead of god)
Without Warning by Oliver Sudden - all of a sudden (an idiom meaning
‘suddenly’)
Cooking Spaghetti by Al Dente - al dente is an Italian expression indicating the correct hardness of cooked pasta (literally ‘to the tooth’)
Preposition Challenge
There is a night watchman who works in a small factory in Pisa in Italy. His job is to make sure that there are no intruders in the factory during the night time.
One night he had a dream about his boss. The next morning he went to see his
boss and said to him: “Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that the plane crashed that you are taking to London today”. The boss got very angry and told him to go away.
There was terrible traffic and the boss arrived too late to the airport to catch his plane. So he caught the next one instead. When he arrived in London he bought the evening newspaper and read: “Pisa - London plane crashes - all
dead!” A week later he flew back to his factory in Pisa. He immediately called in the night watchman and told him that he was sacked.
Why did the boss sack his night watchman? Because he was sleeping (dream-
ing) on the job when he should have been checking that there were no
intruders.
On a Mat up Here
The words are all onomatopoeic, i.e. they imitate the sound that they are sup-
posed to represent. The first set are all animal noises (cow, bee, horse, duck).
The others are all just sounds made by humans, animals or objects - you may
have seen them in comics.
Keys to Chapter 4
51
Mathematical 1
1
Mathematical 2
2 minutes
Mathematical 3
The total is seven: first person four eggs (three and a half plus a half), the
second 2 (there were three left at this stage, so the second person had one and
a half plus a half), and the third person had one egg (half plus a half).
Rhyming Words
The following pairs rhyme: arm/farm, eat/heat, hole/whole
Anagrams 2
baker
least
night
solar
tough
worse
route
strap
cheap
pearl
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Keys to Chapter 4
Logical Ladies?
1) f
2) 2
3) g
4) c
Ambiguous Headlines
Two sisters reunited after 18 years at checkout counter - It seems like they had both spent 18 years at the checkout counter, whereas in fact the counter was
the place where they were reunited.
Dealers will hear car talk at noon - Dealers, in this case, are car salespeople.
The ambiguous word is talk which in reality means a presentation/speech (i.e.
a presentation on cars), but seems like it is a car that can speak.
Enraged cow injures farmer with axe - The farmer has the axe not the angry
cow.
Include your children when baking cookies - The idea is that parents should
get their children to participate when cooking, but instead it sounds the chil-
dren are part of the ingredients.
Lawyers from Mexico barbecue guests. The guests are the lawyers, but it
seems like the lawyers are cooking the guests.
Chapter 5
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise
above the brute
Acronyms
A quick way of writing is to use acronyms, where each letter stands for a word.
Match the acronyms with their meanings.
aka
end of message
asap
for your information
atb
as soon as possible
bbn
all the best
bf
bye bye now
bfn
boy friend
btdt
bye for now
btw
also known as
eom
been there done that
fyi
by the way
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
53
A. Wallwork, Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests, Easy English!,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_5
54
Rhyming Words
These pairs of words look as if they should rhyme, but not many of them do. Which ones do rhyme?
are
care
ear
wear
ever
fever
hall
shall
nose
chose
how
show
ill
kill
new
knew
raw
draw
word sword
Limericks
Practise reading the limerick aloud and hear/find the rhythm.
There was a young fellow of Perth
Who was born on the day of his birth;
He married, they say,
On his wife’s wedding day,
And he died when he quitted the earth.
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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 SLEEP into DREAM. You can use the clues in brackets to
help you.
SLEEP
______ (a short high tone produced as a signal or warning)
______ (lose blood)
______ (have/raise young animals)
DREED (not a recognized word)
______ (causing fear or terror)
DREAM
Riddles
Choose the correct answer. In some cases more than one answer may be correct.
1. The more it dries, the wetter it becomes. What is it?
a) a towel b) a cloud c) a sponge
2. What can you catch but not throw?
a) a train b) a star c) a cold
3. What loses its head in the morning but gets it back at night?
a) a mad man b) a tortoise c) a pillow
4. What gets broken without being held?
a) a mirror b) a promise c) silence
5. What is always coming but never arrives?
a) the next bus b) tomorrow c) true love
6. What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
a) electricity b) the earth c) a road
7. What has 88 keys but can’t open a single door?
a) a prison guard b) a piano c) a computer
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8. What has a neck but no head?
a) a bottle b) a dead chicken c) a cabbage
9. What has one eye but cannot see?
a) a needle b) a bat c) a mole
10. What has hands but can not clap?
a) a six-month old baby b) clock c) a murderer
11. What has 50 heads but can’t think?
a) a centipede b) a box of matches c) Cerberus, the mythical creature
Ambiguous Headlines
Try to understand what makes the headlines ambiguous.
Stolen painting found by tree.
Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted.
A quarter of a million Chinese live on water.
Old school pillars are replaced by alumni.
Palindromes
The five sentences below are all palindromes, i.e. sentences that can be read letter-by- letter either starting at the beginning or starting from the end. The only problem is that in each case an extra word has been inserted. Can you find the extra word?
(e.g. Madam I’m not Adam = in this case not is the extra word)
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 foreman, as I live.
Marge lets Norah to see Sharon’s telegram.
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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
meals
not females
pears
extra
slept
alternative spelling of spelled
prose
cord used to tie things
prods
lets something fall
quite
not noisy
ports
examples of this are football, tennis, skiing
stare
liquid that comes out of your eyes
worth
propel something through the air
hears
give a portion of something to other people
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Colorful Idioms
Match the color idiom with its definition.
1. be in someone’s black books
2. have the blues
3. be not as green as one’s cabbage looking
4. a grey area
5. a golden handshake
6. red tape
7. see red
8. as white as a sheet
9. be yellow
a) something which seems unidentifiable
b) not as inexperienced as one looks
c) a substantial sum of money given to someone leaving a company
d) feel depressed or sad
e) when a person is angry with you
f) very pale, in a state of shock
g) bureaucratic formalities
h) act in a cowardly way
i) be rather ill
j) be extremely angry
Mathematical 1
You have ten stacks of ten silver dollars in each. They are identical, except that one stack consists entirely of counterfeit dollars. You know the weight of an authentic dollar, and you also know that a counterfeit dollar weighs one gram less. How many weighings are needed to reveal which stack is counterfeit?
Mathematical 2
You have the same amount of money in your wallet as your friend. How much do
you need to give her so that she has 10 euros more than you?
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Mathematical 3
An art dealer bought a painting for $7000, then sold it for $8000. She then bought back the same painting for $9000, and sold it again for $10,000. How much profit did she make?
QWERTY or CWAZY?
What do the following strange sentences all have in common?
A large fawn jumped quickly over white zinc boxes.
Jack amazed a few girls by dropping the antique onyx vase
Playing jazz vibe chords quickly excites my wife.
The five boxing wizards jump quickly.
Turgid saxophones blew over Mick’s jazzy quaff.
Grammar Challenge
Underline the correct form of the words in italics.
Some time the/Ø last year in a/the small town on a/the east coast of an/the island somewhere in the/Ø Pacific Ocean, a/the kidnapping took place. It all went exactly to plan. The/Ø kidnappers drew up to Mr X, an/the/Ø important judge, just as he was leaving court, bundled him into a/the stolen car, blindfolded him and took him out to a/the hiding place in a/the/Ø country. A/The ransom note, made from newspaper cuttings, was sent to the/Ø police. However after three days of waiting, the/Ø
police had made no contact and there was no money to be seen.
After a/the week, the/Ø terrorists, tired and disappointed, condemned Mr X to death. But a/the terrorist leader was not completely cold-hearted and left a/the/Ø
choice of death to Mr X.
Mr X, despite a/the week of tension, had not lost his sense of humor and in a/the bid for time asked a/the/Ø terrorist leader: “What deaths have you got in stock?”
“Anything from the/Ø electric chair to the/Ø arsenic,” replied a/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/Ø quickest solution, being shot, when he had a/
the/Ø brain-wave. He got up, told the leader of his choice of death and walked away a/the free man.
Question: What death did he choose?
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Similes
Insert the words in the box into the correct spaces
as quick as ______
as quiet as a ______
as safe as ______
as sharp as a ______
as sly as a ______
as steady as a ______
as sweet as ______
as thick as a ______
as ugly as ______
as white as a ______
brick, fox, honey, houses, lightning, mouse, needle, rock, sheet, sin
Smileys
Match the smileys (i.e. a group of keyboard characters that taken on a facial expression) with their meanings.
:<>
Drunk
:-ll
Big Kiss
(((H))) Can’t believe it
:-X
Cursing
:-C
Confused
:-S
Disappointed
:’-(
Disgusted
:-@!
Drinking every
night
:-e
Crying
:-|
Big Hug
:*)
Angry
:#)
Amazed
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Proverbs
Match the proverbs (1-10) with their explanations (a-j).
1. Beggars can’t be choosers
2. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t
3. Blood is thicker than water
4. Do as I say, not as I do
5. Don’t count your chick
ens before they hatch
6. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
7. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
8. Every cloud has a silver lining
9. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
10. Give someone an inch and they will take a mile
a) Do not automatically assume that something will turn out right before it actually happens.
b) Don’t be critical of something that you are going to get for free.
c) Don’t criticize a present that you receive.
d) Family ties are stronger than other relationships.
e) Follow my advice rather than looking at my actions.
f) If you give a little to someone they will then ask for more.
g) Spread your options.
h) The current situation, however bad, may be better than a change for some thing that may be worse.
i) The inexperienced often become involved in difficult situations that more intelligent people would avoid.
j) There is always something positive in every apparently bad event.
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Keys to Chapter 5
Keys to Chapter 5
Acronyms
aka = also known as
asap = as soon as possible
atb = all the best
bbn = bye bye now
bf = boy friend
bfn = bye for now
btdt = been there done that
btw = by the way
eom = end of message
fyi = for your information
Rhyming Words
The following pairs rhyme: nose/chose, ill/kill, new/knew, raw/draw
Word Ladder
SLEEP
BLEEP (a short high tone produced as a signal or warning)
BLEED (lose blood)
BREED (have/raise young animals)
DREED (not a recognized word)
DREAD (causing fear or terror)
DREAM
Keys to Chapter 5
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Riddles
The more it dries, the wetter it becomes. What is it? A towel.
What can you catch but not throw? A cold.
What loses its head in the morning but gets it back at night? A pillow.
What gets broken without being held? A promise. Silence
What is always coming but never arrives? Tomorrow.
What goes through towns and over hills but never moves? A road.
What has 88 keys but can’t open a single door? A piano.
What has a neck but no head? A bottle
What has one eye but cannot see? A needle.
What has hands but can not clap? A clock.
What has 50 heads but can’t think? A box of matches.
Ambiguous Headlines
Stolen painting found by tree. It sounds like the tree found the painting.
Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests Page 7
