Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests
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g) The letter e. End, timE, spacE, Every placE
h) The stars.
i) Tomorrow or the future.
j) Your voice.
120
Tongue Twisters
Practise reading the tongue twister aloud. Then see if you can memorize and say it quickly without getting your tongue tied!
truly rural
red lorry, yellow lorry
strange strategic statistics
the minx mixed a medical mixture
the city sweep shook his sooty sheet in the city street
Anagrams
Create an anagram from the letters of the words in the first column. The anagram should correspond to the definition.
anagram
definition
ageism
pictures
sexist
is
longed
made of gold
height
a measurement of altitude
iceman
where you go to watch a movie
nicest
a small but very visible form of animal life
slight
at night without them you can’t see much
marine
not go away
seldom
the top ones get paid a lot of money
neural
not reflecting reality
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Proverbs
Insert the words from the box into these proverbs.
A bird in hand is ______ two in the bush.
It’s better to be born ______ than to be born rich.
The end justifies the ______ .
Every man is his own worst ______ .
Forbidden ______ is sweetest.
A leopard cannot ______ its spots.
A little learning is a dangerous ______ .
Sticks and stones may break my ______ , but words will never hurt me.
There’s no pleasure without ______ .
Tomorrow is another ______ .
bones, change, day, enemy, fruit, lucky, means, pain, thing, worth
Limericks
Practise reading the limericks aloud and hear/find the rhythm.
There was a young lady of Jarrow
There was a young man from Peru,
Whose mouth was exceedingly
Who dreamt he was eating his shoe,
narrow,
He woke in the night
Though times without number
In a terrible fright
She chewed a cucumber
And found it was perfectly true.
She never could manage a marrow.
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Mathematical 1
A man went to the hardware store to buy items for his house.
1 would cost $.25
12 would cost $.50
122 would cost $.75
When he left the store he had spent $.75, what did he buy?
Mathematical 2
Three men are blindfolded and a red or blue cross chalked on the forehead of each.
As soon as the blindfold is removed, any of the three who sees a red cross on the forehead of one of the others must raise his right hand. From that, it is possible for each man to declare the color of his own cross. How?
Mathematical 3
When the Brooklyn Breakdancers do a routine in which they perform in threes, one member has to sit and watch. When they dance in fours, two watch; in fives, three watch; and in sixes, four watch. How many members of the team are there?
Mathematical 4
Richard Smith had three sons and each of these three sons had three sons too. How many men were there altogether? How many pairs of grandfathers and grandsons?
How many pairs of brothers?
Mathematical 5
Mark is three times as old as Adrian. But in four years’ time, he’ll only be twice as old. How old is Mark now?
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Txt mssg
Match the forms in the first column with their meanings in the second column.
1. 2nite
a) angry
2. im2gud4u
b) be back soon
3. bbs
c) because
4. fyi
d) definitely
5. gf
e) football
6. cya
f) for your information
7. gonna
g) girlfriend
8. wotcha
h) going to
9. footie
i) I’m too good for you,
10. def
j) love
11. luv
k) please
12. pls
l) sad
13. cuz
m) see you,
14. :-ll
n) tonight
15. :-(
o) what are you
Grammar Challenges
Underline the correct form.
1. An archeologist claims he found/to have found/to find some gold coins dated 46
B.C. Do you believe him?
2. Divide 30 by/for 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?
3. How can you take 1 by/from 19 and leave 20?
4. An assistant in a butcher’s shop is 1.80 m tall/is tall 1.80 m. What does he weigh?
5. How much soil is there in a hole in the ground that’s two meters wide/wide two meters, three meters long/long three meters, and four meters deep/deep four meters?
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Play Your Cards Right ...
Match the words in the first column with the explanation in the second column.
a pack/deck/stack
a suit which wins over others irrespective of how
high those other cards are
a pair
the highest card of a suit normally wins one of these
a run
often the highest card of a suit, the two being the
lowest
a trick
the king, the queen and the jack (also known as the
knave)
a trump
a full one of these has 52 cards
ace
two cards of the same number
court cards
a numerical series of cards, e.g. eight, nine, ten, jack,
queen
dealer
the person who gives out the cards
hand
a wild card which can generally substitute any other
card
joker
to play a card of the same suit as the previous player
suits
to mix the cards together before dealing
to bid
to split the pack into two stacks before dealing
to cut
spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
to deal
to play the first card
to follow suit
the cards you hold
to lead
to declare how many tricks you think you will win
to shuffle
to give the cards to each player at the beginning of
the game
Keys to Chapter 9
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Keys to Chapter 9
Irregular Verbs
arise (arose, arisen)
eat (ate, eaten)
fall (fell, fallen)
feel (felt, felt)
lie (lay, lay)
rise (rose, risen)
see (saw, see)
sell (sold, sold)
sew (sewed, sewn)
sit (sat, sat)
steal (stole, stolen)
tear (tore, torn)
wear (wore, worn)
write (wrote, written)
Anagrams
A divorce suit - I advise court (a divorce suit is between a married couple who
no longer wish to be married, so to become unmarried they need to go to
court)
The eyes - they see
Ignorant - no rating (no rating means no classification because the perso
n knows nothing)
Lionesses - noiseless (lions make no noise when catching their prey)
Our destiny - It’s your end ( end in this case means the point/meaning of the course you follow in life; end also means ‘termination’)
This ear - it hears
Violet - love it (a violet is a beautiful flower)
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Keys to Chapter 9
Unusual Paragraph
The most common letter in the English language, the letter e, is not found in
this paragraph.
Word Ladder
MINE
MINT
MIST (a thin fog with condensation near the ground)
MOST
MOAT (ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water)
COAT
COAL
Riddles
It walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the
evening. What is it? Man
I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to
creation, and I surround every place. What am I? The letter e. End, timE,
spacE, Every placE
What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but
never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats? A river.
I never was. I am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. Tomorrow
or the future.
At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being
stolen. What are they? The stars.
What is in seasons, seconds, centuries and minutes but not in decades, years
or days? The letter ‘n’.
The one who makes it, sells it. The one who buys it, never uses it. The one that uses it never knows that he’s using it. What is it? A coffin
The more you have of it, the less you see. What is it? Darkness
Three women went walking under one umbrella, but none of them got wet.
Why? It wasn’t raining.
What can you hear but not touch or see? Your voice.
Keys to Chapter 9
127
Anagrams
images
exists
golden
eighth
cinema
insect
lights
remain
models
unreal
Proverbs
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
It’s better to be born lucky than to be born rich.
The end justifies the means.
Every man is his own worst enemy.
Forbidden fruit is sweetest.
A leopard cannot change its spots.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
There’s no pleasure without pain.
Tomorrow is another day.
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Keys to Chapter 9
Mathematical 1
House numbers
Mathematical 2
A man must raise his hand ONLY if he sees a RED cross chalked on the fore-
head of ONE of the other two. So, if no hands are raised, a man can tell
whether he is red or blue by observing the markings of the other two.
Supposing A and B raise their hands but not C. This means that A and B see
red on ONE of the others, and as they see that C is blue, A and B know them-
selves to be red. C doesn’t raise his hand because he can see red on BOTH A
and B, and as they have raised their hands C know he must be blue. (This
solution works for any combination of colors).
Mathematical 3
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Mathematical 4
13, 9, 12
Mathematical 5
2
Txt mssg
1) tonight, 2) I’m too good for you, 3) be back soon, 4) for your information
[also commonly used in a more formal context], 5) girlfriend, 6) see you, 7)
going to 8) what are you 9) football 10) definitely 11) love 12) please [also
commonly used in a more formal context],13) because, 14) angry, 15) sad
[A variation of this exercise appeared in Chapter 13 of English for Interacting
on Campus, Springer]
Keys to Chapter 9
129
Smileys
:”)
Embarrassed
:-)
Happy
:0
Hungry
:-*
Kiss
:-D
Laughing
:-S
Makes no sense
8-O
Oh my god!
:-(
Sad
:-D
Side splitting
laughter
:-O
Surprised/shocked
:-
Undecided
;-)
Winking
Grammar Challenges
1. An archeologist claims he found/to have found some gold coins dated 46
B.C. Do you believe him?
# In 46 B.C., they wouldn’t have known how many years before Christ it was.
2. Divide 30 by 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?
# 70. (30 divided by 2 is 15, but 30 divided by 1/2 is 60.)
3. How can you take 1 from 19 and leave 20?
# When the numbers are expressed in Roman numerals, this works out: If
you take I from XIX, you are left with XX.
4. An assistant in a butcher’s shop is 1.80 m tall. What does he weigh?
# Meat.
5. How much soil is there in a hole in the ground that’s two meters widethree meters long/long three meters, and four meters deep?
# None.
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Keys to Chapter 9
Play your cards right ...
a pack/deck/stack
a full one of these has 52 cards
a pair
two cards of the same number
a run
a numerical series of cards, e.g. eight, nine, ten,
jack, queen
a trick
the highest card of a suit normally wins one of
these
a trump
a suit which wins over others irrespective of how
high those other cards are
ace
often the highest card of a suit, the two being the
lowest
court cards
the king, the queen and the jack (also known as the
knave)
dealer
the person who gives out the cards
hand
the cards you hold
joker
a wild card which can generally substitute any
other card
suits
spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
to bid
to declare how many tricks you think you will win
to cut
to split the pack into two stacks before dealing
to deal
to give the cards to each player at the beginning of
the game
to follow suit
to play a card of the same suit as the previous
player
to lead
to play the first card
to shuffle
to mix the cards together before dealing
Chapter 10
Words outlive people, institutions, civilizations
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 FOUR into FIVE. You can use the clues in brackets to help you.
FOUR
_____ (an act that violates of the rules of a sport)
_____ (an
idiot)
_____
_____ (a fortified defensive structure)
FORE (in a forward position)
_____
FIVE
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
131
A. Wallwork, Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests, Easy English!,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_10
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Smileys
Match the smileys (i.e. a group of keyboard characters that taken on a facial expression) with their meanings.
:”)
Sad
:-)
Hungry
:0
Embarrassed
:-*
Happy
:-D
Side splitting
laughter
:-S
Kiss
:-(
Laughing
:-D
Makes no sense
:-O
Winking
:-
Surprised/shocked
;-)
Undecided
Limericks
Practise reading the limericks aloud and hear/find the rhythm.
There was a young man from Bagdad
There was an old man of
An inquisitive sort of a lad
Blackheath,
Who said “I will see
Who sat on his set of false teeth,
If a sting has a bee”
Said he with a start
And very soon found that it had.
“Oh Lord bless my heart,
I’ve bitten myself underneath”.
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Grammar Challenge
Underline the correct form in these riddles.
1. What stays/does stay at the bottom of the sea and shakes? A nervous wreck.
2. Who owns/does own all the dairy cows in the Middle East? The Milk Sheik.
3. Why elephants have/ do elephants have grey trunks? They all belong to the same swimming club.
4. How an Inuit builds/ does an Inuit build his house? Igloos it together.
5. What goes/does go round the house and in the house but never touches the house? The sun.
6. What it is/is it that you can keep after giving it to someone else? Your word 7. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What they are/are they?
Footsteps.
8. Who spends/does spend the day at the window, goes to the table for meals and hides at night? A fly.
9. It’s been around for millions of years, but it’s no more than a month old. What it is/is it? The moon.
10. What belongs/does belong to you but others use it more than you do? Your name.
Word Combinations
Combine a word from the first column with a word from the second column.
air
ball
country
bow
earth
fall
light
house
rain
port
sea
quake
sky
rise
snow
scraper