Listening Riddles to Celebrate Aprils Fools Day

Someone once said that what we see depends upon what we think before we look. In other words, we often listen for certain information, which makes it more likely that we will hear it. In celebration of April Fools Day, I offer the following riddles to help you practice listening outside the box. The solution to the riddles lies in not listening for any specific information and not making any assumptions. The answers follow. Enjoy.

Listening Test: Riddles

1. Is there any federal law against a man’s marrying his widow’s sister?

2. If you went to bed at eight o’clock at night and set the alarm to wake up at nine o’clock in the morning, how many hours of sleep would you get?

3. Do they have a 4th of July in England?

4. If you had only one match and entered a cold room that had a kerosene lamp, an oil heater, and a wood stove, which would you light first for maximum heat?

5. How many animals of each species did Moses take aboard the Ark with him during the great flood?

6. The Yankees and the Tigers play 5 baseball games. They each win 3 games. No ties or disputed games are involved. How come?

7. How many birthdays does the average man have? The average woman?

8. According to International Law, if an airplane should crash on the exact border between two countries, would unidentified survivors be buried in the country they were traveling to, or the country they were traveling from?

9. An archaeologist claims he has dug up a coin that is clearly dated 46 B. C. Why is he a liar?

10. A man builds an ordinary house with four sides, except that each side has a southern exposure. A bear comes to the door and rings the doorbell. What color is the bear?

Key:

1. There’s no law against a man’s marrying his widow’s sister, but it would be the neatest trick of the week. To have a widow, he would have to be dead.

2. You’d get one hour’s sleep. Alarm clocks don’t know the difference between morning and night.

3. Oh, yes. they have a 4th of July in England. They also have a 5th, 6th, and so on.

4. First of all, you’d light the match.

5. Moses took no animals at all. It was Noah who took two of each.

6. Who said the Yankees and the Tigers were playing against each other in those games!

7. The average man has on e birthday; so does the average woman. All the rest are birthday anniversaries. In fact, in France “birthdays” ar known as “anniversaries” (anniversaries).

8. You can’t bury survivors under any law- especially if they still have enough strength to object!

9. The archeologist is a liar because B. C. , of course, means, “Before Christ,” and who could have guessed in advance when Christ would be born?

10. The bear that rang the doorbell would have to be a white bear. The only place you could build a house with four southern exposures is at the North Pole, where every direction is south.

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