Bird Word Scramble

Are you a bird watcher or stalker? 😊 Try to unscramble the popular North American birds below.



Example:  prswaor: ________________,     answer: sparrow

   1.   nidralca: ________________

   2.   rekuty: _________________

   3.   cnifh: _________________

   4.   drocewpkeo: ______________

   5.   mhbigrmudni:__________________

   6.    boirn: _______________

   7.   leacpni: ________________

   8.   riooel: ________________

   9.   kiehaeccd: _________________

   10.               raekapte: __________________

   11.               luelasg: __________________

Answer Keys

   

   1.   cardinal

   2.   turkey

   3.   finch

   4.   woodpecker

   5.   hummingbird

   6.   robin

   7.   pelican

   8.   oriole

   9.   chickadee

   10. parakeet

   11.  seagull

Two-Word-Idioms with letter "L" (from NPR Sunday Puzzle)

Let us solve the Sunday word puzzle from the National Public Radio (On-Air Challenge) , which was aired this last weekend. 


With the given words starting with the letter "L”, give me another word starting with "L" that will complete a common two-word phrase or idioms.


Ex. Three-letter answer

Language --> ____________: lab

Four-letter answers:

1. Lemon ____________ :

2. Laundry ___________:

3. Loose: ___________ or loose ______________ :

4. Leading ___________:

5. Lady _____________:

6. Lava ______________:

7. La-la ______________:



Five-letter answers:

8. Last ______________:

9. Latin ______________:



Six-letter answers:

10. Love _____________: 

11. Lounge ______________:

12. Loss-_______________:

13. Lapis ________________:

14. Living ____________:

15. Little _____________:



Seven letters or longer:

16. Liquor ________________:

17. Lending ________________ :

18. Limited _______________:



Answer Keys

1. law

2. list

3. lips/ leaf

4. lady

5. luck

6. lamp

7. land

8. laugh

9. lover

10. letter

11. lizard

12. leader

13. lazuli

14. legend

15. league

16. license

17. library

18. liability

Words Beginning & Ending with the Same Letter

Form words that begin and end with the same letter. Each word has its definition (with part of speech) that helps you get the word quickly.
e.g., ___ RAS ___   : ERASE

   

   1.   ___INDO___ : (noun) meaning a space usually filled with glass in the wall of a building or in a vehicle, to allow light and air in and to allow people inside the building to see out

   2.   ___YRICA___ : (adjective) meaning (of literature, art, or music) expressing the writer's emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way

   3.   ___APKI____ : (noun) meaning a square piece of cloth or paper used at a meal to wipe the fingers or lips and to protect garments, or to serve food on

   4.   ____EMAN_____: (verb or noun) to ask authoritatively or brusquely/an insistent and peremptory request, made as if by right

   5.   ____AYHE_____: (noun) violent or damaging disorder; chaos

   6.   _____REGAN____ : (noun) culinary herb which is a bushy perennial mint with leaves that are used as a seasoning and a source of aromatic oil

   7.   ____ARDIA____ : (adjective) of, relating to, situated near, or acting on the heart

   8.   ______YPIS______ : (noun) someone who works in an office typing letters and other documents

   9.   _____TRES______: (noun) pressure or tension exerted on a material object/  a state of mental or emotional tension resulting from a very demanding circumstances

   10.               _____ANGE_____ : (noun) a person in charge of managing and protecting part of a public forest. : a person in charge of managing and protecting part of a national park. : a soldier in the U.S. Army who has special training especially in fighting at close range

   11.               ______RIM_____ : (verb) to dress or adorn in a careful manner

   12.               ______APE______ : (noun) a strip of cloth that is part of the front of a jacket or coat. It is joined to the collar and folded back onto the chest

   13.               _____INSEN______: (noun) one of the most popular herbal roots used to improve health in eastern Asia

   14.               _____GEND______ : (noun) list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting

Answer Keys

   

   

   

   1.  W (window)

   2.  L (lyrical)

   3.  N (napkin)

   4.  D (demand)

   5.  M (mayhem)

   6.  O (oregano)

   7.  C (cardiac)

   8.  T (typist)

   9.  S (stress)

   10.              R (ranger)

   11.              P (primp)

   12.              L (lapel)

   13.              G (ginseng)

   14.              A (agenda)

a short piece of poem

Virus

by Jean Lee

Something that makes people keep alienating one another

Something that brings deafening silence and hatred to an enclosed area

Something that steals human kindness

Something that turns compassion into a bunch of trinket

Something that reaches and attaches to a cell faster than the enmity formed in mind

Something that fits random humans out there like a key slipping into a lock

Something that ignites flame of anger that feels stone cold of the heartless souls

Something that engulfs rational mind and warm smile at strangers possibly infected

Something that paints the town MAD

.

.

.

.

Something that makes our fingers crossed all the time:

‘Please go away and fly out to the brightest planet, Venus. That’s where you might fit in rhyming with your own name.’

Rat Quiz

As well aware, the year of 2020 is the year of the rat, the first animal in the Chinese Zodiac. Let us check interesting facts about the murine friend! Fill in the given blanks below.

(source from https://www.terminix.com/blog/education/facts-about-rats/   &  http://www.havahart.com/rat-facts#behavior & https://pets.amerikanki.com/11-interesting-facts-about-mice-and-rats/)

   1.   Rats are very _____________, giving birth to about 6 to 10 pups, 3-6 times per year.

   2.   _______________in nature, rats generally emerge at dusk to do most of their activity and feeding throughout the night.

   3.   A rat’s _________________ never stop growing.

   4.   Among the U.S. cities, ____________ tops the list of the most rat-infested and ________________ was second, followed by Washington, D.C.

   5.   Rats enjoy socializing with others and can even _______________ when they are playful.

   6.   Rats have ______________and different personalities like humans. Some rats tend to be hard-working, others tend to dilly-dally and have fun. Yet others seem to spend all their time entertaining others with funny antics.

   7.   A male mouse is called a _____________ and a female mouse a doe. A group of mice is called a ______________.

   8.   Mice in the wild have short ________________. They usually only live for about five months, mostly because of predators such as cats, snakes and foxes. In a lab setting, mice can live for up to two years.

   9.   MIT neuroscientist Matthew Wilson revealed in 2001 that rats and mice _____________, too – just the same as humans do. They have REM sleep times and neurons in their brains that fire in ways that are familiar to scientists studying human _______________  activity.

  10.               Contrary to popular belief about rats, they are one of the __________________ animals around. They have very rough tongues that they constantly use it on their coats to groom themselves. As long as you keep the cage of a pet clean, you should have no reason to worry about dirtiness.

Answer Keys

   

   

   1.  Prolific

   2.  Nocturnal

   3.  Teeth

   4.  Chicago, NYC

   5.  Laugh

   6.  Individuality

   7.  buck, mischief

   8.  lifespans

   9.  dream

   10.  cleanest

Let's practice the "/ æ /" sound as in "apple" or "family" by this NPR word game!

This week, let us try the fun word puzzle (that was aired on NPR Weekend On-Air Challenge, January 12^th, 2020).


Every answer is a compound word in which the vowel sound in each half is a short "a"— as in "grassland" or "madcap" – which is called an “ash” sound 
/ æ/   in American English.

     1.   Father's father

     2.   Item in a levee

     3.   Slang term for someone who talks, talks, talks

     4.   Symbol in a tweet

     5.   Sudden remembrance of something past

     6.   Carrying case with straps that's worn over the shoulders

     7.   Pancake

      
 8.   Game of 21

     9.   Low-growing weed that can quickly take over a lawn

     10.               Old-fashioned timer that you periodically turn over

     11.               Place where taxis line up

     12.               Done hurriedly and carelessly

     13.               Make individually without machine help

     14.                Item you step onto when you step out of the shower

<Answer Keys>

   1.  Granddad

   2.  Sandbag

   3.  Gasbag

   4.  Hashtag

   5.  Flashback

   6.  Backpack or Knapsack

   7.  Flapjack

   8.  Blackjack

   9.  Crapgrass

  10.              Sandglass

  11.              Cabstand

  12.              Slapdash

  13.              Handcraft

  14.              bathmat

Grocery Market Word Play (from National Public Radio Sunday Puzzle)

This week, I would like to present the first weekend puzzle from NPR (National Public Radio). These puzzle questions might lack validity for EFL students whose learning settings are not the US ground, because the theme for the questions this week is brand names you find in American grocery store. Let us just give it a try though for fun. Here we go!

Every answer is the brand name of a food or beverage that you might buy at the grocery store.

   

   1.   Preserves — Consists of a word meaning "lollipops" around the letter M

   2.   Soup — Conceals the word OGRES in consecutive letters

   3.   Breakfast cereal — Is an anagram of WHITE SEA

   4.   Baking goods — Is an anagram of RUBY LIPS + L

   5.   Cookies — Spelled backward, is a two-word phrase meaning "betting

 everything"

   6.   Soft drink — Consists of four consecutive state postal abbreviations

   7.   Beer — Completes the phrase "older ___" in a punny way

   8.   Juice — Also names a kind of car engine

   9.   Beverage product — Hidden inside the phrase T-BONE STEAK

Answer Keys 

   

   1.  Smuckers

   

   2.  Progresso

   

   3.  Wheaties

   4.  Lays

   5.  Pillsbury

   

   6.  Coka Cola

   7.  Budweiser

   8.  V8

   9.  Nestea

10.        

1.