April Fools’ Day, sometimes called All Fools’ Day, is a time to play pranks on others. These tricks can be verbal, as in the examples below, or they can be physical. Plastic wrap on the toilet seat, alarm clocks set back an hour and the classic “kick me” sign affixed to a friend’s back are a few popular April Fools’ Day pranks. Have a very happy April Fools’ Day, but don’t forget to watch your back!
Read the following nursery rhyme and then answer the question posed in the last line:
As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks.
Every sack had seven cats.
Every cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, wives —
How many were going to St. Ives?
The answer to the question is one. While the man and his wives and their sacks, cats and kits were going from St. Ives, only the speaker — the I in the rhyme — was going to St. Ives.
If you madly multiplied 7 times 7 times 7 times 7 and added one for the man, you were the victim of a language trap. Language traps are brief posers that test your ability to read or listen carefully and to avoid being fooled by misleading information. If you think precisely as you consider the dozen classic language traps in this game, you can avoid being caught by the snapping shut of steel jaws and being dubbed an April fool.
Answers follow the questions.
1. Name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday or Sunday.
2. Susan’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?
3. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet 10 inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?
4. Which is correct: 9 and 7 is 15 or 9 and 7 are 15?
5. How many three-cent stamps are there in a dozen?
6. Pronounce out loud the words formed by each of the following letter series: B-O-A-S-T, C-O-A-S-T, R-O-A-S-T. Now, what do you put in a toaster?
7. Pronounce out loud the words formed by each of the following letter series: B-I-L-K, S-I-L-K. Now, what do cows drink?
8. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks, what is a greenhouse made of?
9. If a peacock and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs will three peacocks lay in three days?
10. How many months have 28 days?
11. A farmer had 17 sheep. All but nine died. How many were left alive?
12. You are the engineer on a train going from Chicago to New York. The train leaves Chicago with a hundred passengers, stops in Detroit to pick up ten and discharge five, stops in Cleveland to pick up five and discharge ten, stops in Buffalo to pick up ten and discharge five, and then proceeds to New York.
How old is the engineer?
Answers
1. yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 2. Susan. 3. meat 4. The sum of 9 and 7 is 16. 5. twelve (i.e., a dozen) 6. bread 7. water 8. glass 9. None. Peacocks don’t lay eggs; peahens do. 10. all of them. 11. nine 12. Because you are the engineer, the age of the engineer is your age.
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com website: verbivore.com.