GAMES for your brain Exercise your brain and have some fun with these puzzles designed to stimulate different cognitive functions.
Backwords (easy)
All the answers in this game are semordnilaps—words that spell a different word forward and backward, such as faced and decaf. (Give yourself a gold star if you noticed something special about the word semordnilap!) 1. Forward it’s a state of armed conflict; backward it’s uncooked.________________________________________
5. Forward it’s an auger or chisel; backward it means to steal things during a riot or war.___________________________
2. Forward they’re spinning toys; backward it’s a small stain on a shirt or tie.____________________________________
6. Forward it means intelligent; backward it’s another word for trolleys._______________________________________
3. Forward they are tasty seeds such as almonds; backward it means to astonish or shock.________________________
7. Forward it’s a civil wrongdoing; backward it’s a mediumslow gait for a horse._______________________________
4. Forward it’s the movement of the ocean; backward it means to correct written material.____________________
Toponyms (harder)
Toponym is just a fancy word for a place name. In this game we have a group of words that were derived from place names. For example, did you know that the French phrase serge de Nîmes, which means “a sturdy fabric” from Nîmes” (a city in France) is where the word “denim” came from? 1. Ground beef named after a city in Germany.___________ 2. A small yellow bird named after a string of islands off the northwest coast of Africa.__________________________ 3. A race of 26.2 miles named after a town in Greeece. ________________________________________________ 4. A stiff paper for file folders or envelopes named after the capital city of the Philippines._______________________ 5. Worldwide sporting event named after the tallest mountain in Greece._______________________________
6. A very small, oily fish named after a Mediterranean island near Italy.________________________________________ 7. A small leafy green vegetable named after a city in Belgium._________________________________________ 8. A rich sauce named after the Netherlands.____________ 9. Men’s formal wear named after a village in upstate New York._______________________________________ 10. A brimless hat named after a city in Morocco. _______________________________________________
Double Trouble (hardest)
Compound words are made up of two smaller words, such as hayloft or watchtower. In this game we give the second half of some compound words. You must identify the one word that precedes each of them to make a compound word. For example, given the words weed, coast, and sick, the one word that makes each a compound word is “sea” (seaweed, seacoast, and seasick). If you’re really stuck, there are hints for these in the Answers on page 62.
1. Stairs, town, fall, size.___________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Drum, muff, phone, ache. _______________________________________________________________________________ 3. Headed, weight, house._________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Hole, handle, power, slaughter.___________________________________________________________________________ 5. Back, bridge, strings.___________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Coat, cast, board, dose._________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Ship, wood, ware, headed._______________________________________________________________________________ 8. Door, fuse, hale, mate, stall______________________________________________________________________________ 9. Brush, liner, port, craft.__________________________________________________________________________________ Reprinted with permission from Nancy Linde, author of the best-selling book 399 Puzzles, Games, and Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to Keep Your Brain Young,417 More Games, Puzzles, and Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to Keep Your Brain Young, and 299 On-the-Go Games and Puzzles to Keep Your Brain Young. She is also the creator of the website Never2Old4Games.com, which is used by many senior-serving organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
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3rd Act magazine | summer 2021
ANSWERS ON PAGE 62
www.3rdActMag.com
