Lateral Thinking Problems and

1. The Past Perfect
Exercise
For The Mind
2
1 Some parents are holding their children, waiting
for their turn. The children are handed one at a time
to a man. The man holds them while a woman shoots
them. If the child starts to cry, the man tries to stop
the crying before the child is shot. Give a logical
explanation to this.
2 An employee told the manager of a factory not to
take the plane to Moscow. He said that he had dreamt
a few times at night that there would be a crash in the
plane the manager was supposed to take the following
week. The day following the employee’s advice, the
manager fired him from his job. He replaced him
with another worker.
There was a change in the manager’s schedule and he
did not go to Moscow. The following week, there was
news that a plane heading for Moscow had crashed.
Why did the manager fire the ‘psychic’ employee?
3 Tom was on a vacation abroad. One day he fell off a
boat into deep water. He could not swim and he had
nothing that could help him keep afloat. After about one
hour, Tom was rescued. Suggest why Tom did not drown.
4 Ah Beng was driving alone in his car. He was speeding
and he lost control of the car. The car went down into a
steep ravine and plunged into a fast flowing river. Ah
Beng’s arm was broken and he could not release his seat
belt in order to get out of the car. The car sank to the
bottom of the river trapping Ah Beng in the car. Rescuers
arrived two hours later and they found Ah Beng still
alive in the river. How do you explain this?

2. ANSWERS
Puzzles 1 a) The children are getting their photos
taken with Santa Claus OR
b) The man is a doctor and the woman is a nurse. The
nurse is giving the children injections.
2 The sacked employee was a night watchman. The
manager fired him for sleeping in his job. Otherwise how
could he dream?
3 Tom went to Israel for a vacation. He fell into the Dead
Sea. The water is the dead sea has a very high salt content;
it is so dense that a person would float on it easily.
4 It was a shallow river. The water in the river reached
up only to Ah Beng’s lower neck.
Unexpected things can happen anytime.
Realize this, it is important for the mind.
Regular Exercise of the mind
can help to prevent it from decline
When you have had a very busy time,
good relaxation can recharge your mind.
Wise Couplets
For Your Mind