sun
sick
water
side
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Proverbs
Insert the words from the box into spaces in these proverbs,
All is fair in ______ and war.
All that glitters is not ______ .
A ______ workman always blames his tools.
The exception that proves the ______ .
God helps ______ who help themselves.
Let sleeping ______ die.
There’s no place like ______ .
There’s no ______ without fire.
When the ______ is away the mice will play.
Why keep a ______ and bark yourself?
bad, cat, dog, dogs, gold, home, love, rule, smoke, those
Illogical?
Can you explain why the following are nonsense?
He murdered his parents and then pleaded for mercy because he was an
orphan.
Her feet are so big that she has to put her skirt on over her head.
She hasn’t had any children and she’s going to make sure her mother doesn’t
either.
She’s still writing books. Autobiographical mainly.
We saw an iceberg that had completely melted.
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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
arches
What Google does
arrest
The most uncommon
course
Origin
danger
Where flowers and plants grow
debits
A very small flat
design
With a signature
erects
What you shouldn’t tell anyone else
iciest
Bigger than towns
rested
A place where there is a lot of sand and very little water
sailed
___ and gentlemen
Logical 1
Jack gave John the following challenge: “If you sit down in that chair, I bet I can make you get out of it before I run around the chair three times,” he said.
“That’s not fair,” John said. “You’ll just prick me with a pin or something.”
“No,” Jack said. “I won’t touch you, either directly or with any object. If you get out of the chair, it’ll be by your own choice.”
John thought and accepted the challenge but Jack won the bet. How did he do it?
Logical 2
A rapper and his sister were out one morning shopping. The rapper suddenly pointed across the road to a boy and said: “That boy is my nephew”.
To which his sister replied: “Well, he isn’t my nephew.”
Well , who was he?
136
Logical 3
To get into a top secret arm training camp, you have to say the password to the
guard. There is a certain system that you must always follow:
If the guard says 1, 2, 6 or 10, you say ‘three’.
If he says 4, 5 or 9, you say ‘four’.
If he says 3, 7 or 8 you must say ‘five’.
and if he says 11 or 12 you must say ‘six’.
What do you have to say if he says 13?
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. flower power
2. handy andy
3. heebie jeebies
4. pub grub
5. riff raff
6. sin bin
7. super duper
8. topsy turvy
9. willy nilly
10. wishy washy
a) hippy peace movement
b) good with manual work
c) fear
d) food served in bars
e) term of abuse used by upper and middle classes to describe undesirable
people
f) a box or bench to which offending players in a sports contest can be sent for a period as a penalty , especially in ice hockey.
g) very good
h) upside down
i) whether one likes it or not
j) feeble character or idea
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Riddles
Insert the words in the box into the blank spaces.
Where are ____ usually crowned?
On the head.
If two is company and three is a crowd, what are ____ and five?
Nine.
What ____ bigger the more you contract it?
Debt.
What is it that no one wishes to have, yet no one wishes to lose?
A ____ head.
What is that you must ____ after giving it to someone else?
Your word.
Captain Cook made three voyages around the world and was killed on one of them?
Which one?
The ____ one.
A woman had ____ children and half of them were boys. How could that be?
The other half were boys too.
A duck was swimming in a pond and a dog was sitting on its tail. How could that
be?
The dog was on the ____ , sitting on its own tail.
What teacher wears the biggest hat?
The one with the biggest ____ .
What always happens at the end of a ____ spell?
It rains.
bald, dry, five, four, grows, head, keep, kings, last, shore
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Idioms
Match the idioms in the first column with their explanations in the second column.
that was a bit below the belt
strong criticism to shock someone into
positive action
be too big for one’s boots
what you said was unfair/sarcastic/nasty
at the drop of a hat
think oneself very important
I’ll eat my hat
envious
a kick in the pants
only interested in personal (monetary) gain
line one’s own pockets
stay calm/cool
keep your shirt on
let everyone see your emotions
wear one’s heart on one’s
immediately and willingly
sleeve
I wish I were in your shoes
make more effort
pull one’s socks up
convinced that something won’t happen
Add an -e.
If you add an e to the end most of the words below this will produce another word.
But not in all cases - which?
hum
not
rat
rip
scar
set
star
them
two
win
Keys to Chapter 10
139
Keys to Chapter 10
Word Ladder
FOUR
FOUL (an act that violates of the rules of a sport)
FOOL (an idiot)
FOOT
FORT (a fortified defensive structure)
FORE (in a forward position)
FIRE
FIVE
Smileys
Match the smileys (i.e. a group of keyboard characters that taken on a facial
expression) with their meanings.
:”)
Embarrassed
:-)
Happy
:0
Hungry
:-*
Kiss
:-D
Laughing
:-S
Makes no sense
:-(
Sad
:-D
Side splitting
laughter
:-O
Surprised/shocked
:-<
br />
Undecided
;-)
Winking
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Keys to Chapter 10
Grammar Challenge
Underline the correct form in these riddles.
1. What stays at the bottom of the sea and shakes? A nervous wreck.
[wreck = a ship that has broken up; a nervous wreck: a person who is
emotionally exhausted]
2. Who owns all the dairy cows in the Middle East? The Milk Sheik.
3. Why do elephants have grey trunks? They all belong to the same swim-
ming club.
4. How does an Inuit build his house? Igloos it together. [Igloos = he glues]
5. What goes round the house and in the house but never touches the house?
The sun.
6. What 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 are they? Footsteps.
8. Who spends 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 is it? The moon.
10. What belongs to you but others use it more than you do? Your name.
Word Combinations
airport
countryside
earthquake
lighthouse
rainbow
seasick
snowball
sunrise
waterfall
Keys to Chapter 10
141
Proverbs
All is fair in love and war.
All that glitters is not gold.
A bad workman always blames his tools.
The exception that proves the rule.
God helps those who help themselves.
Let sleeping dogs die.
There’s no place like home.
There’s no smoke without fire.
When the cat is away the mice will play.
Why keep a dog and bark yourself?
Illogical?
He murdered his parents and then pleaded for mercy because he was an
orphan. He cannot claim to be an orphan (someone who has lost both parents)
if he killed them himself.
Her feet are so big that she has to put her skirt on over her head. Being able to put on a skirt and the size of one’s feet have no relation.
She hasn’t had any children and she’s going to make sure her mother doesn’t
either. She is the child of her mother.
She’s still writing books. Autobiographical mainly. An autobiography is book written by an author regarding the same author’s life. Generally an author
will only write one autobiography.
We saw an iceberg that had completely melted. If it is completed melted it is no longer an iceberg.
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Keys to Chapter 10
Anagrams
search
rarest
source
garden
secret
bedsit
signed
cities
desert
ladies
Logical 1
John sat down in the chair. Jack ran around it twice, then said, “I’ll be back in a week to run the third time around!”
Logical 2
Her son.
Logical 3
8 (it relates to the number of letters in the number)
Rhyming Forms
flower power hippy peace movement
handy andy good with manual work
heebie jeebies fear
pub grub food served in bars
riff raff term of abuse used by upper and middle classes to describe undesirable people
Keys to Chapter 10
143
sin bin a box or bench to which offending players can be sent for a period as a penalty during a game, especially in ice hockey
super duper very good
topsy turvy upside down
willy nilly whether one likes it or not
wishy washy feeble character or idea
Riddles
Where are kings usually crowned? On the head.
If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five? Nine.
What grows bigger the more you contract it? Debt.
What is it that no one wishes to have, yet no one wishes to lose? A bald head.
What is that you must keep after giving it to someone else? Your word.
Captain Cook made three voyages around the world and was killed on one of
them? Which one? The last one.
A woman had five children and half of them were boys. How could that be?
The other half were boys too.
A duck was swimming in a pond and a dog was sitting on its tail. How could
that be? The dog was on the shore, sitting on its own tail.
What teacher wears the biggest hat? The one with the biggest head.
What always happens at the end of a dry spell? It rains.
Idioms
that was a bit below the belt what you said was unfair/sarcastic/nasty
be too big for one’s boots think oneself very important
at the drop of a hat immediately and willingly
I’ll eat my hat convinced that something won’t happen
a kick in the pants strong criticism to shock someone into positive action
144
Keys to Chapter 10
line one’s own pockets only interested in personal (monetary) gain
keep your shirt on stay calm/cool
wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve let everyone see your emotions
I wish I were in your shoes envious
pull one’s socks up make more effort
Add an -e.
hum
not, note
rat, rate
rip, ripe
scar, scare
set
star, stare
them, theme
two
win, wine
Chapter 11
Have fun and play as many word games as
possible
Grammar Challenge 1
A man who was the owner of a winery died. In his will, he choose/chose to leave 21
barrels ( showed/shown i n the figure below) between his three sons. Seven of the barrels are filled with wine, seven are half full, and seven are empty. However he set/
setted a series of rules: the wine and barrels must be split/splitted so that each son has the same number of full barrels, the same number of half-full barrels, and the same number of empty barrels. Note that there are no measuring devices. How can
the barrels and wine be evenly divided?
Grammar Challenge 2
You have three boxes of fruit. One contains/is contained just apples, another just oranges, and the other both oranges and apples. Each box labels/is labeled. One says "apples," one says "oranges," and one says "apples and oranges." However, it knows/is known that none of the boxes label/are labeled correctly. How can you label the boxes/can the boxes be labeled correctly if you o nly allow/are only allowed to take and look at just one piece of fruit from just one of the boxes?
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
145
A. Wallwork, Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests, Easy English!,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67241-0_11
146
Similes
Insert the words in the box into the spaces.
as _____ as coal
as _____ as a bat
as busy as a _____
as fat as a _____
as _____ as a pancake
as free as a _____
as _____ as gold
as _____ as lead
as light as a _____
as _____ as the hills
bee, bird, black, blind, feather, flat, good, heavy, old, pig
Word La
dder
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 REST into SOFA. You can use the clues in brackets to help you.
REST
LEST (in case)
____
____ (floor consisting of open space at the top of a house just below roof)
____
SOFA
147
Riddles
Choose the best answer. Some of the answers are subjective.
The more there is of it, the less you see. What is it?
a) darkness b) a black hole c) death
What has four fingers and a thumb, but neither flesh nor bone.
a) a mutant frog b) a glove c) fear
What would you call something with two mouths, three noses and four eyes?
a) an English teacher b) a monster b) very very ugly
Where is everyone equally beautiful?
a) in the cemetary b) in the dark c) in the imagination
What question can never be answered 'yes'?
a) are you asleep? b) do you know the meaning of life? c) are you joking?
What would you do if you saw an elephant sleeping in your bed?
a) call the local zoo b) sleep somewhere else c) push him/her out
How many planets are there out in space?
a) seven b) six thousand three hundred and twenty four million c) all of them
If you had five cakes and the boy next to you took three, what would you have?
a) one b) two c) a big fight
If I’m holding five apples in my right hand, and six apples in my left hand, what do I have?
a) a problem b) very big hands c) a miracle
What most resembles half a cheese?
a) a full moon b) the other half c) the truth
148
Add an -e.
If you add an e to the end most of the words below this will produce another word.
But not in all cases - which?
art
big
bit
bar
fat
fir
her
hug
low
mad
Idioms
Match the proverbs (1-10) with their explanations (a-j).
1. a one off
2. the number one
3. one foot in the grave
4. one for the road
5. one night stand
6. in two minds
7. kill two birds with one stone
8. put two and two together
9. thick as two short planks
10. two-faced
149
a) a casual sexual relationship
b) a final drink before leaving for home
c) a single occurrence or example of something
Word Games, Riddles and Logic Tests Page 13
