Test your word power by philip j carter ken a russell

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TEST YOUR WORD POWER

Philip J Carter & Ken A Russell

Joint editors of the Mensa UK puzzle journal

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A WARD LOCK BOOK

First published in the UK 1994 by Ward Lock Villiers House 41/47 Strand LONDON WC2N 5JE A Cassell Imprint

Copyright © Philip J Carter and Ken A Russell

All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication ) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE Applications for the copyright owner’s written

permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher

Distributed in the United States

by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc

387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810 Distributed in Australia

by Capricom Link (Australia) Pty Ltd

2/13 Carrington Road, Castle Hill NSW 2154

A British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data block for this book may be obtained from the British Library

ISBN 0 7063 7228 X

Design and typesetting Ben Cracknell

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are indebted to our wives, both named Barbara, for their continued enthusiastic support for all our

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INTRODUCTION

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found

Alexander Pope People delight in playing with words — pulling words

apart, reconstructing them in different guises,

arranging them in clever patterns and finding hidden meanings within them |

We are both word game addicts, whether it be

creating novel crossword grids, decoding and devising ingenious cryptic crossword clues or wrestling with chronograms, word squares, lipograms, palindromes,

rebuses, heteronyms and homonyms

It is often said that to have a mastery of words is to

have the ability to produce order out of chaos and that

command of vocabulary is a true measure of

intelligence As such, vocabulary tests are widely used in intelligence testing In this book we test your word power in a wide selection of different types of word

puzzles, many of which are our own invention We

have created the chaos and have thrown out the challenge for you to sort out the chaos and restore order

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we have allocated the following star rating system: * Standard

** More challenging *** Difficult

Each puzzle has been cross-referenced with two

numbers — a question number (Q) and an answer

number (A) so that when you check the answer to a puzzle there is no risk of seeing the answer to the next puzzle before you have had a chance to solve it

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Word Search

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| Synonyms |

In each of the following a number of synonyms of the keyword are shown Take one letter from each of the synonyms to find a further synonym of the keyword The letters appear in the correct order

1 Keyword: granule

Synonyms: scrap, fragment, grain, atom, iota, crumb, molecule, speck

Keyword: naive

Synonyms: ingenuous, natural, candid, unworldly, open, artless, unaffected, simple, trusting

Keyword: sign

Synonyms: evidence, token, gesture, trace, hint,

signal, clue

Keyword: competent

Synonyms: appropriate, clever, dextrous,

fit, qualified, sufficient, practised, able, endowed, suitable

Keyword: trick

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| Campbell’s Principle | Can you arrange the 16 words into a more meaningful, albeit trite, order?

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| Phobias | |

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| | No Repeat Letters |

Moving from one square to another in any direction, spell out the longest word that you can You can go into each square only once | Remainders | |

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| X Puzzle | Working In any cy

direction but always X TIE|S X

in a straight line, IIEIXIS Y

find 20 words in the XiRIX S

erid Each word TIAIO T

must contain at least one X FIY/E E AIM\X R XIAIMM X EIBIE E | Reverse Anagram |

If we presented you with the words MAR, AM and FAR and asked you to find the smallest word that

contained all the letters from which these words could be produced, we would expect you to come up with the word FARM Here is a further list of words:

STUN, COUNT, STAIR, SLOT

What is the shortest word from which all these four

words can be produced?

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| Animal Anagrams |

Solve the four anagrams to find the names of kinds of

animals Then transfer the arrowed letters and solve

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| Anagram Theme |

Arrange the 14 words in pairs so that each pair is an anagram of another word or name The seven words produced have a linking theme For example, if the words TRY and CREASE appeared in the list, they could be paired to form the word SECRETARY and the theme could be professions AN LAST BARE | OATS CORAL ONCE CORN OPERA COTE SANE DEER SPRAY HOD TURN

| Somerset Maugham’s Thought |

Find the starting point A and spell out this saying

You can move in any W

direction, but use each

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| | Just the Job |

All the following are jobs or professions When you

have identified them, re-arrange the initial letters to

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| Knight Beau Jacques’ Theorem |

Find the starting point, then, using the knight’s move

in chess, work out the message

Find three English words that contain all five vowels once each only in the reverse alphabetical order — UOIEA

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| Word Power | The answers are all nine-letter words and will be

found in the grid You will find one letter on each line in order, and you may use each letter once only All the words start with the letter P

Clues

1 Devoid of expression 6 Type of nut

2 Stamp collecting 7 Trickle

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| Missing Letters |

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L 3 awed etd "má má “1 Find a Word

Find a 13-letter word by travelling along the lines

You must not cross a letter twice

| Bracket Word |

Place two letters in each pair of brackets so that they finish the word on the left and start the word on the

right The letters in the brackets reading in pairs

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Kmmmmm = Words | Fill in the centre nine letters to make eight seven-letter words TỊEIR SIR|S cu " ees Birds |

Use all 24 letters in the sentence below to spell out the

names of three birds Use each letter once only

SHAKERS HOVER IN FLYING RACE

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| Birds |

Move from honeycomb cell to honeycomb cell, in any direction, to spell out the names of 12 birds You may move horizontally, vertically or diagonally, and you

may use letters more than once in the same word (14c Sàn (®6G0 006G (3 ofa GDObi® oat ONS | Containers | |

Find a word and its container for each of the clues below For example, Meat in a river = T (ham) es

1 Monkey in a church 6 Element in a bell

2 Bird in the inside 7, Curve in a manuscript

3 Animal in an element 8 Vegetable in a weapon 4.Rodent in appreciation 9 Drink in a state

5 Island in an 10 Composer’s name in

authorization lights

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Many familiar words have unfamiliar meanings — for example, the word clock, as well as meaning a

timepiece, is also a name for a type of beetle and an

ornamental pattern on the side of the leg of a sock or stocking Below is a list of familiar words and

opposite a list of their not so familiar meanings, but in the wrong order Can you match them up correctly? Dean — Asmall fish with silvery scales

Full — A maxim |

Kick — Acomposition of plaster of Paris Gnome - A deep, narrow valley

Cockle -— To dress up in a showy fashion Pace — Farewell

Argentine — To cleanse and thicken (as cloth)

Crank — A shrubby evergreen plant

Fetch — An aperture in a wall for shooting or looking through

Staff — With the permission of

Tuna — The pushed-in base of a glass bottle Loop — A wraith or double |

Prank — A heating stove with a kind of radiator Rue — A prickly pear (plant or fruit)

Vale — Briskly or vigorously

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| Pyramid |

Spell out the 10-letter word by going into the.pyramid one room at a time Go into each room

once only, but you may go into the passage as many times as you wish KO KCXO) KCXN XL) zEvTyvbylay | Elimination |

Of the 17 words listed here, 16 can be paired up to

form eight double words Which word is left over?

Soft Boogie Band

Quartet Donna String

Prima String Pipes

French Clarinet Woogie

Pedal Pandean Fiddle

Master Horn

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“ma Beginning always |

with the centre letter, [LINIGIBIO|EIA spell outeightseven- [[X|[ỈN|L|L|XỊ|T|U letter words You can NINiITITILIAID travel in any direction

but can use each letter | A|L|H a RỊE|IlI

only once RIAIL/RIO/PIC

EID|IO|IT|E|EIT DỊL|E|Z|DIE|Y

| Liam's Mail and Tessa's Asset | Each clue leads to a pair of words that form a

palindrome — for example, spacious heath = roomy moor and she was unwell = Delia ailed

1 Circumvent him 7 He transgressed 2 Burst forth flawless 8 Irish anger

3 Wicked fruit 9 Tender god

4 Highest billing 10 Festivity ambush 5 Cared for mesh 11 A week’s closing of

fabric the day

6 Inferior sag 12 Enticed ahead

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| Sixers |

Place the correct letter in each circle to produce a six- letter word in each

SA a2 OE

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| Imponderal Ripe-almonds - |

The earliest documented palindrome in the English language — ‘lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel’ — was written by John Taylor in 1614 Since then

palindromes have become a challenging and amusing form of word play and many examples have become

quite well known — for example, ‘sex at noon taxes’,

‘able was I ere I saw elba’ and ‘a man, a plan, a canal: panama’, which honours George W Goethals, the

engineer who devised the Panama Canal

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| Network = |

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| Bucolic Tale |

Complete the following sentence by filling in the four words The words are anagrams of each other

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| Letter Omission |

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OS

Place the 20 words listed below in the crossword

WAY, MOTOR CATER

TOW LATER FATAL

MINER TOTES TALES

WATER SILOS MILER

MANOR MARES WAS

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| Connections |

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—— Three Bits Use each of the 24 bits

once only to form eight words Each of the eight words

uses one bit from :

each of the inner, middle and outer

rings

Plecemeal Quotation

A quotation has been divided into letter groups and arranged in alphabetical order For example, FIND -:

THE QUOTE would be presented as EQ, FI, ND, TE,

TH, UO (4, 3, 5) |

Re-arrange the following letters to find this —

quotation by William Cowper (3, 4, 3, 7, 3, 3, 4, 3, 4) AD, AD, CO, DM, ET, ET, GO, HE, HE,

MA, ND, NM, TO, TR, UN, WN, YA

su (4đ, c l J J

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| Word Track — American Presidents | By starting somewhere in the letter-maze and by

moving one letter at a time to the left or right or up or

down, it is possible to spell out the names of 20 Presidents of the United States It does not matter

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| Ant | |

Solve the clues and you will find that every answer has ANT somewhere in it

1 Remedies ANT

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| The Enigmasig Wheel |

The Enigmasig Wheel was introduced in 1986 in Take

the IQ Challenge The wheel, which combines

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| The Magnificent Puzzle |

Start at the centre square and, working from square to square horizontally, vertically and diagonally, spell out seven synonyms of the word MAGNIFICENT You

should use each

square only once, | D O|AIRITIAIL lờ

and you should

finish at the top UJ|N|U|S|NG|R GÌ right-hand TIGIUIAITINIE square T Ss IÍxÍGIEIE A|N|D|E|R|ILIO GIN|P|R|IO|U|\U SJU|B|GIP|O|S | Transfer |

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| Murphy’s Recommendation | |

Working either clockwise or anticlockwise and to a

definite pattern, find the letters that will produce a trite sentence beginning with W The first letter, W, 1s not

included in the wheel |

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| Rhyming Pairs |

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| Rebuses | Each of the following is a phrase For example, BBBBBB = Bee line 1 2 3 .-R THEM - |worrowreurus | ÂGENr 5 1B as & | : Squarewords | Work clockwise round the perimeter of each square and finish in wan co

the centre to IỊP RIE LIE

find, ineach |N A EIEIT A

case, a nine- P S NIRIE letter word

Each word

begins at one N A|N O

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| Fancy Dress |

1 Alan said: ‘I am going as Caesar unless Charlie

goes as King Kong or Fred goes as Ghandi.’

2 Bill said: ‘If Dick is going as either Caesar or Ghandi, then I am going as the Devil.’

3 Charlie said: ‘I am going as Napoleon unless

Edward goes as the Devil, in which case I will go as

the Devil, too.’

4 Dick said: ‘I am going as Ghandi unless Charlie is Caesar.’

5 Edward said: ‘If Dick is Caesar then Fred must be Ghandi, but otherwise Fred is the Devil.’

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| Word Circles |

Place the letters in the correct boxes in each quadrant to obtain two eight-letter words, one reading

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Gods and Goddesses

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| Clueless Crossword | | Delete three letters in each Square to form a crossword that is made up in the usual way with good, interlocking, English words | Groups |

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Each grid contains the letters of eight eight- letter words Each word in Grid 1 has a synonym

in Grid 2, and the letters

of each of the eight pairs of synonyms are in

exactly the same position in each grid All letters are in the correct order and each letter is used once only Clues to each pair of synonyms are given, in no particular order — for example, the answers to the clue