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Laugh and Learn English has been up now for more than two weeks and is doing well with a few new visitors every day. Readers of this blog are a bit more advanced in English than other visitors so today I put up another challenging riddle for you. Go to http://www.laughandlearnenglish.com/toughriddle02.html to see it. The answer is at the bottom of the page, so try to guess the answer first!
Hello Everybody!
In a week I will be going back to New York for a much needed rest. As I told my students, I have also forgotten so much English while in China that I need to go back to study! Seriously, though, I have a lot of plans during my weeks at home (hopefully at the beach!) but my plans center around making lots and lots of pages for my new web site Laugh and Learn English. I am doing a lot of the preparation work for the site now. This morning, before going to work, I made a riddle page which you can see at Laugh and Learn English Riddle One. If you could, please give me some feedback on this riddle. In particular, try to answer these questions:
1. Is it too easy, or maybe too difficult?
2. Is the explanation clear?
3. Do you think I should put the answer on the next page, before “Riddle Number 2″? (That would mean that visitors to my site would have to wait several days, or maybe even a week, for the answer.)
Any other comments welcome!
Hi Everybody,
Sorry for not having posted for a while. I’m now working on a new website, totally dedicated to learning English from humor. I believe learning English in context is important, and everybody likes to have a good laugh, so the new site should be very popular. It is, however, a LOT of work.
Here is a set of riddles for you. Each one includes some interesting language for you to think about. Please leave possible answers in the “Comments” section. Don’t worry if your answer is not right, just give it a try. Sometimes, just trying can help you to learn. Good luck and have fun!
Q1: Why did the man throw a bucket of water out the window?
Q2: Why did the man throw the butter out the window?
Q3: Why did the man throw a clock out the window?
Q4: Why did the man put the clock in the safe?
When a younger sibling (a brother or sister) copies their older sibling, the older one might call the younger one a “copycat”. Older children often say “Don’t be a copycat!”. Well, here’s a riddle about some copycats:
Ten copycats were sitting in a boat, and one jumped out. How many were left?
Yes, this was pretty easy. Of course if one jumps out, nine should be left. However, as Nafis pointed out in the Comments section, since they are copycats, all of them will follow the first. So, there would be zero left!
Many children’s riddles are based on letters of the alphabet. Here’s an example:
Why is the letter A like a flower?
Okay, nobody even attempted to guess this time. You might think about things that go with flowers - a beautiful scent, sunshine, green grass, bees… Bees! And what comes after the letter A? The letter B! So, why is the letter A like a flower? Because it is always followed by a B!
Here is one of my favorite childhood riddles:
Do you know why birds fly to south in the winter?
Okay, nobody guessed the answer this week, but I will give a bonus point to Hanane for trying. And in fact, she did get half the answer right: birds fly south for the same reason I flew south to Sanya this week - because it’s much too far to walk! (My legs would be really tired if I came on foot, though flapping my arms all the way is pretty exhausting too!)
To understand a riddle like this, you have to think literally. Normally, we just assume that birds (or tourists) will fly to their destination, so we focus on the end of the sentence and think of why they go south. But this answer surprises us by focusing on the how - flying instead of walking. I guess another answer could be, “Because taking a taxi would be too expensive”!
Here is the riddle of the week:
What are two things people never eat before breakfast?
The answer is “lunch and dinner” (or “lunch and supper”). The correct answer was given by reader Tony first, then by reader Sourabh. Congratulations to both!
I plan to have a new riddle every week. How many will you guess right?
Here is a riddle. We have a great prize (very loud “cyber-applause”!) for anyone who can guess the answer.
How can you spell mousetrap with three letters?
Clever reader Nafis came up with the answer “CAT”. What do you think? Is it a good answer? Yes, that IS the right answer! (^_^) Everyone give Nafis a big round of applause! (YEAH!!! Clap, clap, clap!) Now go visit her blog at http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/nafis/ where you can get inspiration to continue with your English studies.
