The BLC Blog

A forum and learning place for British Language Centre students

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

More simile stories

Here are a couple more simile stories, these ones written using as + adjective + as + noun similes in English. One's a brain teaser. Can you work out the answer?

A friend of mine wanted to set me a problem to solve. "It's as easy as pie," he said.

In the story, two friends meet in the street. One asks the other, "You were as crazy as a loon and you got married 20 years ago, didn't you?"

The second one answers, "Yes, and I am as happy as Larry."

The first one asks, "And do you have children?"

The second man answers, "Yes, I have three daughters with hair as black as coal. If you multiply all three of their ages, the product is 36. And the sum of theirages is the number of this house. If you are as clever as you think you are, you will be able to tell me my daughters' ages."

The next day, the first man phones the second and says, "Last night I was as busy as a bee trying to calculate your daughters' ages, but I thought you should give me another clue."
The second man says, "You're right, I forgot to tell you that the eldest plays piano."

What are their ages? [See below for the answer.]

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My friend Daniela told me the most incredible story last week. Of course, she's as mad as a hatter, so you have to take everything she says with a grain of salt.

Now, the first thing you need to know is that she and her boyfriend Jeffrey are as different as chalk and cheese. He's as sweet as pie, and she's as happy as a cat with two tails to be with him. They were hiking in a national park when they suddenly came across a bear standing in their path as bold as brass.

As Daniela's as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, it's not surprising that she turned as white as a sheet and ran off as fast as greased lightning. Bob, however, remained as cool as a cucumber, and just stood there on the path as quiet as a mouse. And wouldn't you know it, as sure as God made little green apples, the bear slowly walked up to him. Bob was as pleased as Punch that the bear only sniffed [smelled] him a bit, cuffed [hit with an open paw] him hard across the head as playfully as a kitten, and ambled off [walked slowly away]. Jeff had been as helpless as a baby in the situation, but luckily he survived.

Why don't you try writing a story yourself using some other similes, and post it here?

[Answer: The girls are 2, 2 and 9. This is the only possibility, because there are only two sets of numbers which add up to the same total (13): 2, 2 and 9 and 1, 6 and 6. As the first man knows that 13 is the house number, he needs more information to determine which choice is correct. When the second man tells him that the eldest ONE plays the piano, he knows it can't be the 1, 6 and 6 option, in which there are two eldest daughters, six-year-old twins.]

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1 Comments:

At March 23, 2011 4:18 PM, Blogger brae640 said...

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