Can you find the country hidden in the following sentence:
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paper updates to their port reports.
A popular newspaper printed part of a page that pointed out that port officials use a pencil, not a pen, when they prepare paPER Updates to their port reports.
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Puzzle 58
You can replace the dashes with the same four-letter word, and create two new words, one that starts with ARM, and one that ends in ING.
Can you find all possible four-letter words that work?
arm----
----ing
Answer
Band, load, lock, and rest, all create new words:
armband and banding
armload and loading
armlock and locking
armrest and resting
Note
Some dictionaries also allow ARMRACK, but others don't. So RACK is a unofficial possible answer.
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Puzzle 59
Alex and Billie were rowing their canoe along the River Trent.
In the morning, they managed to row upstream at an average speed of 2 miles per hour.
They then stopped for a spot of lunch and a nice rest.
In the afternoon, the pace was a little easier as they were now rowing downstream back to their starting point, and managed an average speed of 4 miles an hour.
The morning trip took them 3 hours longer than the afternoon.
Hint
You can either fix the distance rowed and see what numbers work, or you can fix the number of hours.
Answer
12 miles.
In the morning, rowing at 2 miles per hour, they rowed for 6 hours. In the afternoon, rowing at 4 miles per hour, they rowed for 3 hours.
There are a number of ways of working this out, and here are two of them:
Method 1
If we assume the distance the rowed upstream to be D miles, we know the morning took (D ÷ 2) hours, and the afternoon took (D ÷ 4) hours, with a difference of 3 hours. So:
D D
- – - = 3
2 4
Multiplying throughout by 4 gives:
2D – D = 12
So:
D = 12 miles
They rowed 12 miles upstream.
Method 2
If we assume they rowed for H hours upstream, we know they travelled H x 2 miles in the morning. In the afternoon, they rowed for (H – 3) hours, and travelled (H – 3) x 4 miles. We know these distances are the same, so:
2H = (H – 3) x 4
Giving:
2H = 4H – 12
Rearranging gives:
12 = 2H
So:
H = 6 hours
They rowed for 6 hours upstream at 2 miles per hour, which is a total of 12 miles.
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Puzzle 60
Yesterday I went for a short bicycle ride around the local lakes. As the weather was very hot, I rode in shorter stages than I'd normally ride.
In Stage One, I rode half of the overall distance.
Stage Two saw half of the remaining distance plus 35 metres covered.
Stage Three covered three-quarters of the remaining distance.
Stage Four completed half of the remaining distance, plus 75 metres.
Stage Five completed the journey with a final burst of 150 metres.
