Asia should have been left out of the choices if Mongolia is the answer. Otherwise there is no clue this is not in fact a geographical question and this is not an IQ question but a form of "what number am I thinking of" question. Any answer

OK, but perhaps you need to indicate what meaning you are after: Zhuangzi's puzzle was crazy, so he became the butterfly. I'm poetic.

1. No, neither is comma followed by and. I'm not sure the two commas are necessary either. The following is not unclear: According to X this crisis first arose in the religious sphere then spread to cover philosophy, the sciences and the

Nice one MrP - hadn't thought of those. Point conceded.

, you still have the same problem: people have to remember the number). xpi0t0s is formed from

NB: please set pedantic mode to full. I'm not asking for general vague feelings, but for justification or rejection of a hypothesis from specific (and preferably quoted) rules. So, the question is: can contractions be formed freely? If there is