full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Dennis Shasha: Can you solve the stolen rubies riddle?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
You’re both told the rules in acndvae. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his ruebis among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three crads, and must write a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in fonrt of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will receive exactly as many rubies as the number wrtietn on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is greater than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the entire box.
Open Cloze
You’re both told the rules in _______. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his ______ among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three _____, and must write a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in _____ of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will receive exactly as many rubies as the number _______ on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is greater than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the entire box.
Solution
- rubies
- advance
- front
- cards
- written
Original Text
You’re both told the rules in advance. The merchant will be allowed to discreetly divide his rubies among three boxes, which will then be placed in front of you. You will be given three cards, and must write a number between 1 and 30 on each, before putting a card in front of each of the boxes. The boxes will then all be opened. For each box, you will receive exactly as many rubies as the number written on the corresponding card, if the box has that many. But if your number is greater than the number of rubies actually there, the scoundrel gets to keep the entire box.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
Important Words
- advance
- allowed
- box
- boxes
- card
- cards
- discreetly
- divide
- entire
- front
- greater
- merchant
- number
- opened
- putting
- receive
- rubies
- rules
- scoundrel
- told
- write
- written