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Book by Robert Streeter and Robert Hoehn republished from 1930s
Originally designed to discover clever people by posing hard questions
'What the nation needs is more geniuses. So said Robert Streeter and Robert Hoehn, two self-styled intelligence experts in the Thirties, who set out to discover clever people by publishing a book posing devilishly difficult brain-teasers for members of the general public.'
1. Rearrange the following letters so as to make the name of a living creature:
B R I N O
2. Four men can build four boats in four days. How long will it take one man to build one boat?
3. Test your memory on this passage: Three men and their wives and a widower left by car at noon one day for a picnic. After they had gone three miles, they saw two men and a child in another car that had broken down. ‘That is tough luck,’ said one of the picnickers. At 1 pm they arrived at the picnic grounds, where they saw only the old one-armed caretaker and his son. They immediately started to eat their luncheon of sandwiches, fruit and cake. Question: How many people have been mentioned?
4. Which is heavier, milk or cream?
5. What one word means both ‘dodge’ and ‘immerse’?
6. Rearrange the letters in the word ‘sleuth’ to make another word.
7. What word meaning ‘ship’ would mean ‘small collections of water’ if the letters were read backwards?
8. If a clock is stopped for a minute every ten minutes, how long will it take the minute hand to complete a revolution?
9. What adjective which means ‘pertaining to citizenship’ spells the same from right to left as it does from left to right?
10. When seen in a mirror, which of the following words printed in capital letters will look the same as when viewed directly?
MAN TOOT DEED
11. There is a monosyllable which, if you add to it a single letter, becomes a word of three syllables. What is it?
12. A man lived in a house that could be entered by only one door and five windows. Making certain that there was no one in the house one day, he went out for the afternoon. Upon his return, although the windows were still locked and unbroken and the door had not been forced, he discovered a thief in his house robbing it. If the thief did not use a skeleton key, or pick any of the locks, how did he get into the house?