Puzzles, Riddles, and Word ESL Games

Riddle

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:31:50 GMT

"Shapeless, I take shape. Unguarded. I escape. Death in excess, death without slake.What am I?"

Help - want to make a film based on a riddle

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:53:00 GMT

Hi folks,

I am going to make a short film and I want to base it on a riddle

However, I am finding it hard to find one that would make a good film! I'm been through many posts already...!

Has anyone got any good suggestions?

Here is my criteria:

- has to be story based
- has to have characters
- must have potential for a twist
- cannot be numbers based
- cannot be a 'who am I'

The film is approximately 10mins long.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advanced:>

Mad old lady riddle

Ant_222 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:32:18 GMT

Â Here's another riddle that may serve as five-minute excersize for your gray cells...

Â There's a queue of twenty people to a twenty-seat bus, and a mad old lady is first in the queue. And, due to her mental illness, she chooses a random seat instead of the one specified on her ticket. The others board the bus one after another trying to take their own seat, but, if they find it occupied, they have nothing to do than choose a random seat of those that are still vacant.

Ant the question is, what are the chances for the last person in queue to take their own seat?Â

A little test for native speakers

Prez1dent — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:38:53 GMT

Hi! This is one of the parts from the Russian national exam on English. Some teachers find it difficult and say that even a native speaker'd have problems with it. I can't understand why they think so. Dear native speakers here, if you have a couple of spare minutes, read the text below and answer the questions. Anyone can try even if English isn't his mother tongue. I'll post the keys later.

Sometimes my father scares me. He can tackle something he knows nothing about, and nine times out of ten, it will come out all right. Itâs pure luck, of course, but try convincing him. âFrame of Mind,â he says. âJust believe you can do a thing, and youâll do it.â âAnything?â I asked. âSome day your luck will run out. Then see what good your Frame of Mind will do,â I said.
Believe me, I am not just being a smart alec. It so happens that I have actually tried Frame of Mind myself. The first time was the year I went all out to pass the civics final. I had to go all out, on account of I had not cracked a book all year. I really crammed, and all the time I was cramming I was concentrating on Frame of Mind. Just believe you can do a thing â sure. I made the lowest score in the history of Franklin High. âThirty-three percent,â I said, showing my father the report card. âThereâs your Frame of Mind for you.â He put it on the table without looking at it. âYou have to reach a certain age and understanding,â he explained. âThatâs the key to Frame of Mind.â âYeah? What does a guy do in the meantime?â âMaybe you should study. Some kids learn a lot that way.â
That was my first experience with Frame of Mind. My latest one was for a promotion at the Austin Clothing Store. Jim Watson had a slightly better sales record and was more knowledgeable and skillful. Me, I had Frame of Mind. Jim Watson got the job. Did this convince my father? It did not. To convince him, something had to happen. To him, I mean. Something did happen, too, at the Austin Clothing Store. My father works there, too. What happened was that Mr Austin paid good money for a clever Easter window display. Itâs all set up and weâre about to draw the curtain when we discover the display lights wonât work. I can see Mr Austin growing pale. He is thinking of the customers that could go right by his store in the time it will take him to get hold of an electrician.
This is when my father comes on the scene. âIs something the matter?â he says. âOh, hello, Louis,â Mr Austin says. He calls my father âLouis.â Me, Joe Conklin â one of his best salesmen â he hardly knows. My father, a stock clerk, he calls âLouis.â Life isnât always fair. âThese darned lights wonât work.â âHâmm, I see,â my father says. âMaybe I can be of service.â From inside his pocket comes a screwdriver. Mr Austin looks at him. âCan you help us, Louis?â âNo, he cannot,â I volunteer. âYou think heâs Thomas Edison?â I donât intend to say that. It just slips out. âYoung man, I was addressing your father,â Mr Austin says, giving me a cold hard look. My father touches something with his screwdriver and the display lights go on.
What happened next was that the big safe in Mr Austinâs office got jammed shut with all our paychecks in it. From nowhere comes my father. âIs something the matter?â he says. âThe safe, Louis,â Mr Austin is saying. âIt

wonât open, I was going to send for you.â âHâmm, I see,â my father says. âCan you help us, Louis?â Mr Austin inquires. I start to say he cannot, but I stop myself. If my father wants to be a clown, thatâs his business. âWhat is the combination of this safe?â my father says. Mr Austin whispers the combination in my fatherâs ear. Armed with the combination, he starts twirling the knob. I canât believe it: grown men and women standing hypnotized, expecting that safe door to open. And while they stand there, the safe door opens.
âGo ahead, say it was luck, my opening the safe today,â my father says. âOK,â I reply. Then I tell him what I saw in the faces of those people in Mr Austinâs office: confidence and trust and respect. âThe key to Frame of Mind is you have to use it to give support to those who need it when thereâs no one else to save the situation. Otherwise it will not work.â

A15
The narrator thought that his father

1) believed that he was the luckiest man in the world.
2) was a knowledgeable and highly qualified man.
3) succeeded in almost everything he did.
4) didnât mind being called a lucky man.

A16

In paragraph 2 âI had to go all outâ means that the narrator had to

1) take the civics examination one more time.
2) take the civics examination in a different school.
3) try as hard as he could to prepare for the exam.
4) find somebody to help him pass the exam.

A17

They didn't promote the narrator because he had

1) proved less successful than Jim.
2) sold few records.
3) no Frame of Mind.
4) not reached the promotion age.

A18

Mr Austin was in despair because

1) the curtain wouldnât draw open.
2) he couldnât find an electrician.
3) the display had cost him a lot of money.
4) he was likely to lose some customers.

A19

When Mr Austin called the narratorâs father âLouisâ the young man felt

1) proud of his Dad.
2) hopeful of his Dad.
3) jealous of his Dad.
4) sorry for his Dad.

A20

The narrator was sure that

1) his Dad would open the safe.
2) his Dad knew nothing about safes.
3) Mr. Austin wanted to make fun of his Dad.
4) Mr. Austin had sent for his Dad to open the safe.

A21

According to Louisâ words, Frame of Mind worked if one was

1) an expert in many fields.
2) ready to help other people.
3) a lucky person.
4) respectful and trustful.

AN AMAZING LOVE STORY ( A BRAIN TEASER)

Passionate_freak — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:13:11 GMT

An Amazing Love Story

Once there was a boy who loved a girl very much. The girlâs father however didnât like the boy. The boy wanted to write a love letter to the girl but he was sure that the girlâs father would read it first. Nevertheless, he wrote this letter :

âThis great love I said I have for you

Is gone and I find my dislikes for you

Increases everyday, when I see you

I donât even like the way you look,

The one thing I want to do is to

Look another way. I never wanted to

Marry. Our last conversation

Was very dull and in no way

Has made me anxious to see you again.

You think only of yourself.

If we were married I know that Iâd find

Life very difficult nor would I find

Pleasure in living with you. Iâve heart

To give, but it is not a heart

I want to give you, No one is more

Demanding or selfish than you and less

Able to care for me and helpful to me

I sincerely want you to understand that

I speak the truth. You will do me a favor

If you consider to put this to an end. Do not cry

To answer this. Your letters are full of

Things that do not interest me.

True concern for me. Goodbye! Believe me

I donât care for you. Please donât think

I am still yoursâ

The girlâs father read the letter, was very happy and gave it to his daughter. His daughter read the letter and was very happy too.

âCAN YOU ANSWER WHY WAS SHE HAPPYâ

Regards

IQ test questions

floral — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:37:22 GMT

IQ test question

France is to Europe as China is to ________
a.Australia b.Mongolia c.Hong Kong d.Asia e.Africa

shortest sentence with every letter of the alphabet

Bibu — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 09:20:25 GMT

Lazy,&quick tv-show jumped in a bx.(30 letters)(bx. is an approved abbreviation of box).

Text twist help

Abbywood — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:20:08 GMT

I have become addicted to Text Twist and have reached a ridiculously high level and am now stumped by these letters - lardhay - and looking for the final and six-letter word! HELP!

Because because because

sunilbhasin — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:09:28 GMT

Can anybody give me a sentence in which 'because' has been used thrice in succession. Eg.: xxx yyy zzz because because because xxx yyy zzz xxx. Please remember that the sentence has to be grammatically correct.

Try these

Game_Nemesis — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 04:39:48 GMT

1.When is a door not a door?
2.What has keys but no lock,space but no room, you can enter but never go in?
3.What has rivers but no water..
Forests but no trees...
Cties but no buildings?
4.A man is running late for work one day, he forgets to grab his umbrella and raincoat, but manages to make it to work dry, How?
5.What eats to live, but never drinks?
6.A man lies dead in the middle of the desert all he has with him is an unopened package, the unopened package explains his death, What's in the package?
7. What does a spider weave that has no eyes, yet can see?

An Alpinist riddle!

Ant_222 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:12:25 GMT

Hello all.

I have been told about a riddle which I have found very funny. So here it is.

There's a steep wall 100 meters in height, which has two hooks in it: one at the top, and one at a height of 50 meters (half way down to the ground). An alpinitst, standing on top of the wall, has a 75-meter rope and a knife, and he needs to get down off the wall.

How can he do it?

P.S. Those who already know the solution, please don't pubish it, for the riddle is purposed for the pleasure of solving it!

P.P.S.: It's not very difficult, but beautiful.

Day-of-the-Week

Dj Bueno — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:20:11 GMT

Which day of the week is an anagram for a common noun? (The noun is a word you know, but not one you hear all the time.) Give the day of the week and the anagram.

Three ants riddle

benita — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 01:38:28 GMT

Three ants were walking in a straight line (one behind the other).

The first ant said "There are two ants behind me".

The second ant said "There is one ant in front of me and one ant behind me".

The third ant said "There are two ants in front of me and two ants behind me".

Why did the third ant say that?

help solve riddle need answer for kids

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:30:22 GMT

whats on mountain & not in valley?

whats in men and not in woman?

whats in me and not in you?

See if you can figure this out!

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:22:18 GMT

I'm there after you eat,
But no one wants to eat me.
I come in many shapes and colors,
But no kid wants to play with me.
I swim in water,
but no one would want to swim with me.
I'm with the richest, and with the poorest.

Made by: Michael M And Lauren H

What word is the longest in English?

Pioussoul — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 03:15:45 GMT

The longest word in English is ________.

A-Z of long words, at least 10 letters long.

Hollie — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 16:29:53 GMT

A-Z of long words, at least 10 letter long.

The first one is: Abbreviate.

Dogs, diamonds and double plays!

deepa — Tue, 25 Nov 2003 07:51:30 GMT

What do these three things have in common? Dogs, Diamonds, Double Plays.

Why is a river rich?

Pioussoul — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 03:14:22 GMT

Why is a river rich?

Riddle to solve

preciousjewelmecca — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:21:19 GMT

Can anyone solve this riddle?

I was told the answer is a thing.

"You know it.
No one wants it.
When you get it, you don't know."

I have no clue to what it is.

Unsolvable riddle

mb90131 — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 21:46:27 GMT

Although broken, it shall always exist and surround us, don't like to be confined in them and they shall outlive us all. What are "they"?

I don't know the answer myself, I was told this one. Post if you have anything that matches the riddle.

Can anyone help me

Guest — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 13:04:01 GMT

can anyone help me work out these puzzles

112P in a H
3C in a F
39B in the O.T.
88p.k.

Very Difficult Riddle... Help plz

Shorty08 — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:55:18 GMT

See if you can solve this. I can't.

My mother feels I am a pain
Yet with her I do remain
Till I leave at last her house
For the *** of a rich man's spouse.

The thing bleeped out is another word for bosom....

10 words from 1...

Hookster — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:05:46 GMT

What six letter word in the English language contains ten other words without rearranging any of its letters?

Blue Eyes Logic Puzzle

Akavall — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:51:09 GMT

"A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect logicians -- if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly. No one knows the color of their eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. If anyone has figured out the color of their own eyes, they [must] leave the island that midnight. Everyone can see everyone else at all times and keeps a count of the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in this paragraph.

On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see 100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green), but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be 101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.

The Guru is allowed to speak once (let's say at noon), on one day in all their endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:

"I can see someone who has blue eyes."

Who leaves the island, and on what night?

There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces, nothing dumb. It is not a trick question, and the answer is logical. It doesn't depend on tricky wording or anyone lying or guessing, and it doesn't involve people doing something silly like creating a sign language or doing genetics. The Guru is not making eye contact with anyone in particular; she's simply saying "I count at least one blue-eyed person on this island who isn't me."

And lastly, the answer is not "no one leaves."
"

http://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html

It's a good puzzle. Unfortunetly, I thought that I misunderstood the puzzle and looked up the solution, but there is really enough information to solve the puzzle.