full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Can you solve the Alice in Wonderland riddle?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
After many adventures in weodalrnnd, aclie has once again found herself in the court of the temperamental Queen of Hearts. She’s about to pass through the gadern undetected, when she overhears the king and qeeun arguing.
“It’s quite smplie,” says the queen. “64 is the same as 65, and that’s that.”
Without thinking, Alice interjects. “Nonsense,” she says. “If 64 were the same as 65, then it would be 65 and not 64 at all.”
“What? How dare you!” the queen huffs. “I’ll prove it right now, and then it’s off with your head!”
Before she can protest, Alice is dragged toward a flied with two chessboard patterns— an 8 by 8 square and a 5 by 13 rectangle. As the queen claps her hands, four odd-looking soldiers acapproh and lie down next to each other, covering the first chessboard. Alice sees that two of them are trapezoids with non-diagonal sides measuring 5x5x3, while the other two are long triangles with non-diagonal sides measuring 8x3.
Open Cloze
After many adventures in __________, _____ has once again found herself in the court of the temperamental Queen of Hearts. She’s about to pass through the ______ undetected, when she overhears the king and _____ arguing.
“It’s quite ______,” says the queen. “64 is the same as 65, and that’s that.”
Without thinking, Alice interjects. “Nonsense,” she says. “If 64 were the same as 65, then it would be 65 and not 64 at all.”
“What? How dare you!” the queen huffs. “I’ll prove it right now, and then it’s off with your head!”
Before she can protest, Alice is dragged toward a _____ with two chessboard patterns— an 8 by 8 square and a 5 by 13 rectangle. As the queen claps her hands, four odd-looking soldiers ________ and lie down next to each other, covering the first chessboard. Alice sees that two of them are trapezoids with non-diagonal sides measuring 5x5x3, while the other two are long triangles with non-diagonal sides measuring 8x3.
Solution
- field
- alice
- approach
- queen
- simple
- garden
- wonderland
Original Text
After many adventures in Wonderland, Alice has once again found herself in the court of the temperamental Queen of Hearts. She’s about to pass through the garden undetected, when she overhears the king and queen arguing.
“It’s quite simple,” says the queen. “64 is the same as 65, and that’s that.”
Without thinking, Alice interjects. “Nonsense,” she says. “If 64 were the same as 65, then it would be 65 and not 64 at all.”
“What? How dare you!” the queen huffs. “I’ll prove it right now, and then it’s off with your head!”
Before she can protest, Alice is dragged toward a field with two chessboard patterns— an 8 by 8 square and a 5 by 13 rectangle. As the queen claps her hands, four odd-looking soldiers approach and lie down next to each other, covering the first chessboard. Alice sees that two of them are trapezoids with non-diagonal sides measuring 5x5x3, while the other two are long triangles with non-diagonal sides measuring 8x3.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| fibonacci numbers |
4 |
| queen claps |
2 |
| sides measuring |
2 |
Important Words
- adventures
- alice
- approach
- arguing
- chessboard
- claps
- court
- covering
- dragged
- field
- garden
- hands
- hearts
- huffs
- interjects
- king
- lie
- long
- measuring
- overhears
- pass
- protest
- prove
- queen
- rectangle
- sees
- sides
- simple
- soldiers
- square
- temperamental
- thinking
- trapezoids
- triangles
- undetected
- wonderland