Train Your Brain: Brain Teasers to Sharpen Your Mind

By Puzzler Media

Just as diet and exercise can help you maintain your physical strength, daily stimulation of your brain can help save your brain from deterioration. The puzzles here are varied and include memory and logic tests; anagrams, word games, and word searches; arithmetic problems and crossword puzzles of all sorts; Futoshiki, Kakuro, and Sudoku tests; and so many more. The key to stimulating your mind is variety, not difficulty, so the puzzles have been devised to be accessible for brains of all ages. From memory quizzes to math problems, there is something here for everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Feb 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781626367104

Book preview

Workouts 1-190

WORKOUT 1

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Wordsearch

How quickly can you find the five themed words in each grid?

CAKES

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FRUIT

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Splits

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Can you rearrange each of these sets of letter blocks into a word?

RY SCO DI VE

RAT TO ED LE

OR LIC IT SO

TU LO DE NGI

ER WH HEV IC

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Cell Blocks

Fill the grid by drawing blocks along the gridlines. Each block must be square or rectangular and must contain the number of squares indicated by the digit inside it. Each block must contain only one digit.

WORKOUT 2

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Sudoku

Place a number in each empty square so that each row, each column and each 2x2 block contains all the numbers from 1-4.

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Add Up

If the number in each circle is the sum of the two below it, how quickly can you figure out the top number? Try this one in your head, before writing anything down.

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WORKOUT 3

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Codeword

Can you crack the code and fill in the crossword grid? Each letter of the alphabet makes at least one appearance in the grid, and is represented by the same number wherever it appears. The four letters we’ve decoded should help you to identify other letters and words in the grid.

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Spot the Sum

In each of these boxes, one of the numbers is the sum of two others. Can you spot the sum?

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WORKOUT 4

Memory Jog

Spend two minutes memorising this list of twenty words, then see how many of them you can recall on a separate piece of paper in another two minutes.

COURAGE

DRILL

HATSTAND

MANNERS

PARTICULAR

BLUE

SHARPEN

SITCOM

PLASTER

CONTINUE

BLITHELY

WAGON

TEAPOT

PANTOMIME

CELLAR

ANTIQUES

MESH

PURPOSE

SPILL

FORTUNE

Pyramid

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Each answer except the first uses all the letters – usually in a different order – from the previous answer plus one extra letter.

Personal pronoun

That thing

Neckwear

Row of seats

Sluggish

Eye’s light-sensitive membrane

Piece of ground for military use

Hold someone back from action

Apprehending

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WORKOUT 5

Futoshiki

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Fill the blank squares so that each row and column contains all the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Use the given numbers and the symbols that tell you if the number in the square is larger (>) or smaller (<) than the number next to it.

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Initials

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If ITHOTN (Oscar-winning film) is IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, what do these initials represent?

WICW (George Formby song)

TBM (Nursery rhyme)

TLOTR (Film title)

TLTWATW (Children’s novel)

HC (Madonna album)

Shikaku

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Divide the Shikaku grid into squares and rectangles, each shape containing a single number that describes exactly how many boxes there are inside it.

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WORKOUT 6

Fitword

When all of the listed words have been placed correctly in the grid, which one is left over?

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3 letters

Cud

Ego

Emu

Gym

Hit

Jaw

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Sow

Wax

Web

4 letters

Bomb

Defy

Limp

Luck

Nest

Pair

Sawn

Zany

5 letters

Annoy

Aorta

Aroma

Media

Merit

Minus

6 letters

Obtain

Rotund

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Six Pack

Can you place digits in the empty triangles, so that the numbers in each hexagon add up to 25? Only single digits between 1 and 9 can be used, and no two numbers in any hexagon may be the same.

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WORKOUT 7

Pathfinder

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Beginning with JUDGES, and moving up, down, left or right, one letter at a time, can you trace a path of seventeen Old Testament books?

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Number Jig

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Which one of the listed numbers won’t fit in each of these mini grids?

256

324

346

454

514

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469

496

619

691

914

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2132

2223

2310

3131

3210

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Copycats

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Choose the answer that best copies the pattern.

READ is to WRITE as LISTEN is to: Ear • Mime • Look • Speak • Hear

DOG is to KENNEL as SQUIRREL is to: Nest • Holt • Tree • Drey • Hole

JAM is to JAR as TEA is to: Cup • Pot • Caddy • Can • Urn

MILE is to MOLE as MOLE is to: Male • More • Mule • Sole • Mire

WORKOUT 8

Dominoes

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Solve the clues then write the six-letter answers into the dominoes. You must work out whether each word fits in clockwise or anticlockwise, so that the connecting letters of the dominoes all match up.

Princess ___, the late Duchess of Kent

___ Eccleston, Formula 1 boss

___ Steptoe, Harold’s father

Mother ___, Calcutta nun

King ___, Elvis song and movie

___ Schwarzenegger, film star and Governor of California

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Sudoku

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Use your powers of reasoning to place numbers in the grid, so that each row, each column and each 3x3 block contains the numbers 1-9.

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Codewords

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If HERD is 1234 and ARMY is 5367 , how quickly can you work out these collective nouns? You should identify more letters as you go along.

8 1 5 3 6

8 3 5 9 1

9 10 5 3 6

6 11 3 4 2 3

12 3 13 4 2

WORKOUT 9

Mini Fit

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Which one of the listed words won’t fit in each of these mini grids?

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Wordsearch

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Hidden in this wordsearch grid are eighteen musical instruments.

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Scramble

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What EU capital cities can be made from each of these sets of scrambled letters?

MORE

PAIRS

HASTEN

NO GAP HENCE

CHERUB SAT

PUB DATES

MADE SMART

STAB A RIVAL

WORKOUT 10

Small Change

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Can you change one letter of each of these words to make five new words with a common theme?

LORD • LOVER • FLAT • SENT • NEXUS

HOSE • DAIRY • LILT • IRKS • PALSY

FOLD • SALVER • TIC • ICON • LEAF

CABLE • CHAIN • DUSK • CREST • PRESSER

Opposites Attract

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Can you sort each set of letter blocks into two words with opposite meanings?

LL TY FU EMP

ART FI SH NI ST

LE DIF SI CU FI MP LT

GUE ISE PR VA EC

Kakuro

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Simple addition and a bit of logical thinking will solve this one. You must write a digit in each white square so that the digits in each across section add up to the total in the triangle to the left, and the digits in each column add up to the total in the triangle above. 1-9 are the only digits to use and, although you may find a digit repeated in a row, it must not be repeated in the same section. We’ve solved one section for you.

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WORKOUT 11

Arroword

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Just follow the arrows to write your answers in the