The latest NPR Sunday Puzzle! Find the names of Sports!

Each sentence conceals the name of a sport in consecutive letters. You name the sports.

Ex. Look — a rat! Eek! --> KARATE

1. He was a dumb ox in grade school.
2. This is your classic rickety chair.
3. My family has always gotten Nissans.
4. The rainbow lingered for more than an hour.
5. With enough cash — and ballots — you can get elected.
6. This historian is the best researcher you'll find.

Answer Keys  

  1.  boxing  (dumb ox in grade)

  2.  cricket (classic rickety)

  3.  tennis (gotten Nissan)

  4.  bowling (rainbow lingered)

  5.  handball (cash and ballots)

  6.  archery (researcher you’ll)

LET'S LEARN SOME AAVE EXPRESSIONS!

If you are living in the U.S., you might have more chances (than outside of the country) to be exposed to a variety of English dialects or vernacular English. Have you heard of “What up?”, “Ya dig?”, or “I finna go grab something to eat now.” These expressions originally came from AAVE, which stands for African American Vernacular English. It is also known as Ebonics or Black English Vernacular (BEV), which is a dialect of Standard American English that has been primarily spoken by the African American community of the States. AAVE is not a broken English, bur rather encompasses a bunch of sub-sub-sets which can vary from region to region. Since AAVE has consistent grammar, phonetics, and vocabulary, it is a legitimate/ alternate form of dialect, NOT a slang or broken English.

Today, let us go over some expressions from AAVE.

    1.   Dig – to understand or appreciate

E.g., Ya dig? (meaning “Do you understand?”)

 

    2.   Bad – good or really good

E.g., The Motown 25 show back in 1983 was so bad! Just can’t forget MJ’s first Moonwalk on TV!

 

    3.   Be – used to describe a habitual action

E.g., She be watching horror flicks every Friday night.

 

    4.   Was – used to express “be-verb” in the past regardless of the subject

E.g. I was happy./ We was heading to the nearby trail./ They was nothing but lazy bums.

 

    5.   Got – used to mean “have” (both in present and past tense)

E.g., You got ten bucks I can borrow?    How much you got?

 

    6.   Blade – knife

E.g., He got a blade in his hands! Let us get outta here!

 

    7.   Strap – gun, usually a pistol

E.g., 'In my hood (meaning neighborhood where they grew up), niggaz got love for me, but I go no where without ma strap'

 

8.   Paper – money

E.g., I found some paper in my old jacket! I’m in luck!

 

    9.   Whip –  expensive/ flashy sports car or sedan

e.g., DAMN! That's a pretty whip you got there, bro!

 

    10. Fed(s) – federal government or an agent from the FBI.

E.g., Harry was caught by the feds on Saturday.

NPR Sunday Word Puzzle aired today! Find words (respectively beginning with the letters S, P, A, C, E) for each category!

This week's on-air challenge is a game of Categories based on the word SPACE. For each category given, name something in it starting with each of the letters S-P-A-C-E. For example, if the category were "Girl's Names Ending in 'Y,'" you might say Sally, Patty, Amy, Carly, and Emily. Any answer that works is OK, and you can give the answers in any order.

 

**Note: In some cases there may be other answers. Any answer that works will be counted as correct.

*image source: https://busyteacher.org/16817-word-categories.html

1. PUNCTUATION MARKS

 

2. SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES

 

3. BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

 

4. THINGS SEEN ON AN AIRPLANE

 

Answer Keys

1. Semicolon, Period, Apostrophe, Comma, Exclamation mark

2. Suriname, Peru, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador

3. Samuel, Psalms, Amos, Chronicles, Exodus

4. Seat, Pilot/Passengers, Aisle, Cockpit, Exit

Today's NPR Sunday Puzzle! Find a word that is an anagram of one word to make a synonym of the other word!

On-air challenge: I'm going to give you two 4-letter words. Rearrange the letters of one of them to get a synonym of the other. Which word is the synonym and which is the anagram is for you to discover.

 

Ex. SOUP WORK --> OPUS (anagram of "soup," synonym of "work")

 

1. COZY SUNG

2. HALT POST

3. LIFE RASP

4. PART LORE

5. TERN TORN

6. LEFT NEWT

7. TOPE BARD

8. LINK OVEN

9. LEAN SILT

10. THIN CLUE

 

Answer Keys

    1.  SNUG (anagram of “SUNG” & synonym of “COZY”)

    2.  STOP (anagram of “POST” & synonym of “HALT”)

    3.  FILE (anagram of “LIFE” & synonym of “RASP”)

    4.  ROLE (anagram of “LORE” & synonym of “PART”)

    5.  RENT (anagram of “TERN” & synonym of “TORN”)

    6.  WENT (anagram of “NEWT” & synonym of “LEFT”)

    7.  POET (anagram of “TOPE” & synonym of “BARD”)

    8.  KILN (anagram of “LINK & synonym of “OVEN”)

    9.  LIST (anagram of “SILT” & synonym if “LEAN”)

    10. HINT (anagram of “THIN” & synonym of “CLUE”)

NPR Sunday Puzzle aired today!

Every answer is a seven-letter compound word or familiar two-word phrase in which the first two letters are the same as the last two in reverse.

 

Ex. Part of a train --> RAILCAR

 

 

1. Product from Purina or Pedigree

2. Crimson, for example

3. Where a football player reaches to score a touchdown

4. Cheer on, as a team

5. To purposely ignore as sounds

6. Male journalists

7. What you might say when patting Rover on the head

 

Answer Keys

1.  dog food

2.  deep red

3.  end zone

4.  root for

5.  tune out

6.  newsmen

7.  good dog!

How did farmers in the past predict weather by animals' behavior?

Are you animal lovers? Humans and animals are all parts of Mother Nature. Centuries ago, farmers and others observed animal behavior and recognized patterns that corresponded to weather events. These observations were passed through generations as important and effective advice, which survive today as adages. Let’s take a quick, fun quiz about weather animals could be a good indicator of weather.

 

Choose the right answer in the parenthesis or fill in the blanks in the following sentences.

 

1.   If a cow stands with its tail to the (West, East, North, South), the weather is said to be fair. ó If a cow grazes with its tail to the (West, East, North, South), the weather is likely to turn sour.

 

2.   When cats sneeze or dogs eat grass, it is a sign of (                 ).

 

3.   When sheep ascend hills and scatter, expect (                      ) weather.

 

4.   Wolves always howl more before a (                      ).

 

5.   When pigs gather leaves and straw in fall, expect (mild,c cold) winter.

 

6.   When rabbits are fat in October and November, expect a (short mild,  long cold) winter.

 

7.   Hawks and geese flying high means a (                     ) sky or (                ) weather.

 

8.   If crows fly in pairs, expect (fine,  foul) weather; a crow flying alone is a sign of (fine,  foul) weather.

 

9.   When the swallow’s nest is high, the summer is very (dry,  humid); when the swallow builds low, you can safely reap and sow.

 

10.               Birds singing in the rain indicates (fair,  hairy) weather approaching.

 

(*Source from the Old Farmer’s Almanac 2022)

(*Picture Source: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-weather-animals-image37987823)

 

 

Answer Keys

1.  West, East

2.  rain

3.  clear

4.  storm

5.  cold

6.  long cold

7.  clear, fair

8.  fine, foul

9.  dry

10.              fair

Slang Words 2022

Language we use evolves and changes just like our aging process. Words could become a cliché, outdated expressions, reborn as a poetic touch, or completely extinct. This week, let us go over some slang words/ phrases often used by young ones in America today.

 

    1.   yeet: a verb normally means to throw something away with mad force/  but for teenagers, it's a word without much meaning, which is used to express sudden excitement or spontaneous behavior. Yeet is one of those internet famous words that not a lot of people really understand. This is partially because there are so many meanings for the term, and the meaning changes depending on the context in which it is used. Notwithstanding, the word yeet is virtually everywhere.

 

    2.   spill the tea: a verb meaning to tell an especially juicy bit of gossip

 

    3.   curved: an adjective meaning to be rejected, particularly in a romantic way.

 

    4.   ratioed: an adjective meaning that (in context for Instagram) when a user who comments on a post has a reply to that comment that gets more likes than the original comment. Any comment is “ratioed” when the likes on a reply to that comment outnumber it. It is most often used as a stand-alone statement as a humorous nonsense word. People use it as an added effect whenever they want to elicit a chuckle from the audience.

 

    5.   Weird flex, but OK: a phrase 'weird flex but ok' is said when someone proudly boasts or brags about something that most people would find either awkward, irrelevant or just plain weird.

 

    6.   on read (pronounced as /red/  ): When someone receives one or more text messages from another person but doesn’t respond, they’re leaving the sender on read. As in, the sender can see that their texts were read, but there’s no reply

 

    7.   lowkey: used as an adverb ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’, or ‘slightly’

 

    8.   JOMO: Joy of Missing Out: You’re enjoying what you’re doing in the here and now and not on social media broadcasting or seeing what everybody else is doing  ó antonym: FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out

 

    9.   KK: OK, cool. closest to gotcha or sure in conversation

 

    10.  FINSTA: a secret Instagram account where people post what they are too afraid to post on the real account or a fake Instagram account

 

    11.   Just booling/ boolin’: Just chillin’ / relaxing

 

 

How about putting what you’ve learned in the right places in these sentences below?

1.   Sean left his ex-girl friend on _________ for months. He doesn’t really reconnect with her this way.

 

2.   A: Are you going to Heather’s birthday party? That’ll be a huge one at a posh hotel. Everyone invited looks so excited!

B: Naah, I’m just _____________ at home, binge-watching the oldies but goodies K-movies. J___M___!

 

3.   A: Shocked to hear that Luke broke up with Jenna!

B: Holy moly! C’mon, spill the __________ right away!

 

4.   Pete got __________ when he asked out his coworker Suzie last weekend.

 

5.   You might think I sound crazy, but I _______key wanna head out again for my second run tonight.

 

6.   Check out Edd’s _____________ where he posts all his silly selfies! He’s gonna kill himself if his boss finds out about that account.

 

7.   You’d better not post anything that you don’t really understand on your social media. Otherwise, you’ll get seriously _____________.

 

8.   A: I can’t believe that my ex-wife got married to that grumpy old guy! She brags about her new title Mrs. Kingsley. 

 

B: Weird __________ but OK! I'd say it's a good thing you ____________ her out of your life. 

 

9.   A: I’ll get back to you in an hour.

B: ______.

 

 

 

 

 *Picture Source: https://7esl.com/slang/ 

Answer Keys

    1.  read

    2.  boolin’, JOMO

    3.  tea

    4.  curved

    5.  lowkey

    6.  finsta

    7.  ratioed

    8.  flex, yeeted

    9.  KK