Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking has many fans. When you play, you have to solve a riddle  ( acertijo) by thinking what lateral conditions occurred that made it possible for those events to happen. Would you like to try some of it? Here are some classics!

To make it  a little more difficult  you also have to fill in the spaces using one of the possessive adjectives in brackets  ! 

1. The day before yesterday, Jenny’s age was 17. Next year, (a)____ (his/her/their) age will be 20. How is this possible?

2. Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of a room. Nearby  is a broken bowl. There is no mark on (b) ____ (hers/their/theirs) bodies and they were not poisoned. (envenenados)  How did they die?

3. You are walking in a field and find two lumps of coal,(4) a scarf and a carrot. How did they get there?

4. One day Mary celebrated (c)____ (his/her/its)birthday. Two days later (d)____ (his/her/its) older twin brother, Terry, celebrated (e)____ (his/her/its) birthday. How is this possible?

Solutions:

(a) her; (b) their;  (c) her; (d) her; (e) his; (f) her; (g) their;   h) its; (i) twins’; (j) his; (k) his; (l) hers .

1. Today is January 1st.(f)____ (his/her/their) 18th birthday was on December 31st. This year she’ll be 19. Next year, she’ll be 20.

2.They were goldfish and (g)____ (his/theirs/their)bowl was knocked over by a cat.

3.Some children built a snowman there. It is now warm and the snow has melted,(deshecho) leaving only the scarf, the coal, and the carrot, which had been (h)____ (his/her/its) eyes and nose.

4.At the time of birth, the (i)_______ (twins’s/twins’/twins) mother was travelling by boat. The boy, Terry, was born first, early on March 1st. The boat then crossed the International Date Line and Mary, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. In a leap year,( año bisiesto) Terry celebrates (j)____ (his/her/their) birthday two days after (k)____ (his/her/its) younger sister celebrates (l)____ (his/hers/theirs).