Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests
Page 9
Mathematical 3
Where do you often see the fraction 24/31?
Similes
Match the simile with the definitions below.
1. like a beached whale
2. like a bolt out of the blue
3. like a book
4. like a broken record
5. like a cat on hot bricks
6. like a deer in (the) headlights
7. like a dog’s dinner
8. like a fish out of water
9. like a flash
10. like a headless chicken
a) Completely stuck and unable to move or escape from the situation.
b) Suddenly and unexpectedly
c) Very easy to understand
d) To repeat and repeat ad nauseam.
e) To be nervous and unable to keep still
f) To be so frightened or surprised that you cannot move or think
g) Very messy and/or disorganized.
h) Appearing to be completely out of place.
i) Very quickly.
j) You do it very quickly and without thinking carefully about what you are doing
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Riddles
Choose the best answer.
What do hippos have that no other animals have?
a) enormous jaws b) baby hippopotamuses c) three stomachs
What does a hen do when she stands on one foot?
a) meditates b) lifts up the other one c) goes to sleep
What has four legs and flies?
a) a lightning bird b) a low cost airline plane c) a dead horse
What is the best way to keep a fish from smelling?
a) keep it on ice b) cut off its nose c) spray it with an organic deodorant
Why does a hen cross the road?
a) to get to the other side b) whenever she wants c) when she is henpecked
Anagrams
Can you work out the connection between the words (e.g. conversation) and the explanations (e.g. voices rant on)?
Conversation - voices rant on
Declaration - an oral edict
Desperation - a rope ends it
Saintliness - Least in sins
Suggestion - It eggs us on
Nostalgia - Lost again
Marriage - a grim era
Misfortune - oft ruins me
Prosperity - Is property
Punishment - Nine thumps
Revolution - I love to run
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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)
Draw a pupil’s lip upward.
Do nine men interpret it? Nine men, I nod.
Rise to vote, you sir.
Now, Ned, I am a maiden nun; Ned nod, I am a maiden won.
Are we not drawn onward, oh we few, drawn onward to new era?
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Keys to Chapter 6
Keys to Chapter 6
Symb ols
In the first column & stands for and, and @ for at, even in the middle of
words. * is known as an asterisk or the ‘star’ symbol. An x has been used for
decades at the end of a letter to signify a kiss, and and o means a hug (embrace).
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
Contractions
ain’t
has not, am
not
betchu I bet you
betta
I had better
coulda could have
cuppa
a cup of (tea)
dunno
I don’t know
gimme give me
gonna
I am going to
gotta
have you got
...?
..?
gotta
I have got to
hiya
hi there
izzy
is he
kinda
kind of
Keys to Chapter 6
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Riddles
I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean and yet
remain dry. A shadow.
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. A splinter.
I am weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I’ll make it
lighter. A hole.
I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest man can’t hold me for much more than
a minute. Breath.
I’m where yesterday follows today, and tomorrow’s in the middle. A dictionary.
The man who needs me doesn’t know it. 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. A shoe.
Throw it off the highest building, and I’ll not break. But put me in the ocean,
and I will. A tissue.
Lighter than what I’m made of, More of me is hidden than is seen. An
iceberg.
I fly, yet I have no wings. I cry, yet I have no eyes. Darkness follows me; lower light I never see. A cloud.
Forward I’m heavy, backwards I’m not. A ton (the letters of not reversed).
Word Ladder
BLACK
BLANK (with nothing written on it)
BLINK (rapid movement with eyes)
CLINK (short light metallic sound)
CHINK (a narrow opening)
CHINE (cut of meat or fish)
WHINE (noise made by animal or child when unhappy)
WHITE
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Keys to Chapter 6
Anagrams
south
tides
steal
poles
pears
parks
brief
ocean
trace
wings
Rhyming Words
age/cage, eight/weight, host/ghost, loud/cloud
Proverbs
God helps those who help themselves Don’t rely on other people.
His/her bark is worse than his/her bite He or she may not be as bad- tempered as they appear
If at first you don’t succeed try, try again If you are patient and persevere you will eventually achieve your goal.
It takes two to tango Some things you can’t do just by yourself.
Let bygones be bygones Forget about unpleasant things or problems that happened in the past.
Let sleeping dogs lie Avoid making trouble if you do not need to.
Look after number one Sometimes it pays to put yourself in first position.
Love is blind Your positive emotions towards someone are not always
rationale.
Make hay while the sun shines Take advantage of opportunities and good
conditions while you can
any hands make light work A job is done more quickly if a lot of people share in the work.
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Rhyming Forms
back pack - bag worn on the back
big wig - important person
boob tube - item of clothing worn by woman over her chest
brain drain - tendency for highly qualified people (typically scientists) to
leave their c
ountry
chit chat - light conversation
clap trap – nonsense
fat cat - rich, successful person
fuddy duddy - boring person who is stuck in their ways
higgledy piggledy - not straight
hot shot - someone destined for success
Special Words
You can read NOON backwards and forwards and even upside down and it
still looks the same.
Tense Challenge (-inf Form vs Infinitive)
A basketball manager needed 30 million dollars to rebuild his club’s stadium.
Hoping to find the finances he needed, the manager went to a rich business man, Mr Dollar, whose whole life had been dedicated to making money. Mr
Dollar, spotting an opportunity to make a good return on this investment, agreed to lend the manager the money.
It took six months 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 about this situation, immediately telephoned the manager to ask him for the 20 million dollars. But the manager said he didn’t have the money. So Mr Dollar told the manager to meet him at his office car park and to come with his best player, Micky Jordan.
The three men met at the car park and Mr Dollar said to the manager: “If you
give me your best player, I will cancel your debt.”
Looking 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”.
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Keys to Chapter 6
“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 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
to resolve the situation?
# Micky said nothing. He then put his hand in the bag, picked out a stone, and
dropped it onto the ground amongst all the other stones, so that it was impos-
sible to identify which stone he had dropped. He then said: “Oh dear, I’ve
dropped the stone. But no worries. Let’s see what the other stone is, and if it’s black, then the stone I dropped must have been white”.
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
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Mathematical 1
50 minutes. The boss saved Bob the chauffeur ten minutes of travelling time
each way and thus was picked up at 4.50 PM rather than the usual time.
Mathematical 2
The chances are 0. If nine people get their hat back, then the tenth person must too.
Mathematical 3
On a calendar where these two days are sometimes squeezed together on cer-
tain months.
Similes
like a beached whale - Completely stuck and unable to move or escape from
the situation.
like a bolt out of the blue - Suddenly and unexpectedly
like a book - Very easy to understand
like a broken record - To repeat and repeat ad nauseam.
like a cat on hot bricks - To be nervous and unable to keep still
like a deer in (the) headlights - To be so frightened or surprised that you can-
not move or think
like a dog’s dinner - Very messy and/or disorganized.
like a fish out of water - Appearing to be completely out of place.
like a flash - Very quickly.
like a headless chicken - You do it very quickly and without thinking carefully
about what you are doing
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Keys to Chapter 6
Riddles
What do hippos have that no other animals have? baby hippopotamuses
What does a hen do when she stands on one foot? lifts up the other one
What has four legs and flies? a dead horse
What is the best way to keep a fish from smelling? cut off its nose
Why does a hen cross the road? to get to the other side
Anagrams
Conversation - voices rant on (rant - speak at length in an angry impassioned
way
Declaration - an oral edict (edict - official proclamation)
Desperation - a rope ends it (a rope is often used when someone hangs
themself)
Saintliness - Least in sins (sin - bad things done)
Suggestion - It eggs us on (egg on - encourage)
Nostalgia - Lost again (lost in thoughts about the past)
Marriage - a grim era (grim era - an unhappy period)
Misfortune - oft ruins me (oft - often)
Prosperity - Is property
Punishment - Nine thumps (to thump - to hit someone, a thump is a blow)
Revolution - I love to run
Palindromes
The extra words are in italics.
Draw a pupil’s lip upward.
Do nine men interpret it? Nine men, I nod.
Rise to vote, you sir.
Now, Ned, I am a maiden nun; Ned nod, I am a maiden won.
Are we not drawn onward, oh we few, drawn onward to new era?
Chapter 7
Words are illusions
Funny Book Titles
Match the titles with the authors.
titles
authors
Sea Birds
N. Tranced
Hypnotism
Hugo First
Philosophy for Beginners
Anne Droid
Parachuting
Al Batross
Robots
Ivan I Dear
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
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A. Wallwork, Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests, Easy English!,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_7
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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 TEA into HOT. You can use the clues in brackets to help you.
TEA
____
____
SOT (a chronic drinker)
HOT
Limericks
Practise reading the limericks aloud and hear/find the rhythm. Note: thunk is not a real word but looks like it could be the past of the verb to think.
There was an old man in a trunk,
There was an old man of Vancouver
&n
bsp; Who inquired of his wife, ‘Am I
Whose wife got sucked into the hoover.
drunk?’
He said, “There’s some doubt
She replied, with remorse,
If she’s more in than out
“Yes darling, of course,”
But whichever it is, I can’t move her.”
And he answered, “That’s just as I
thunk”.
Ambiguous Headlines
Try to understand what makes the headlines ambiguous.
The bride wore a long white lace dress which fell to the floor.
For those of you who have small children and don’t know it we are now serving
ice cream.
When properly stewed, I really enjoy apricots.
I plan to mow the lawn with my husband.
You should never crumble your bread or roll in your soup.
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Proverbs
Match the proverbs (1-10) with their explanations (a-j).
1. Money doesn’t grow on trees
2. Necessity is the mother of invention
3. Never speak ill of the dead
4. Once bitten, twice shy
5. One man’s meat is another man’s poison
6. Practice what you preach
7. The proof of the pudding is in the eating
8. Put your money where your mouth is
9. Talk of the devil
10. The grass is always greener (on the other side of the fence)
a) Actively do what you said you would do.
b) Another place or scenario always seems better than your current situation.
c) If something goes wrong, then you will think twice before doing the same thing again.
d) If you really need something you will be motivated to get it.
e) Said when a person appears just when you are talking about them
f) The real value of something can be judged only by practical experience and not from appearance.
g) What may be good for you may be unsuitable for someone else.
h) When someone is no longer alive, they deserve some respect.
i) You have to work in order to earn.
j) You should act in accordance with the advice that you give to others
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Rhyming Words
These pairs of words look as if they should rhyme, but some don’t. Which ones do not rhyme?
ate
hate
car
scar
come home
here
there
high
thigh
law
flaw
mile
smile
mind wind
Contractions
Match the contractions in the first column with their full forms in the second