Find the names of 10 gems or precious stones hidden in the following story. Each one spans at least two words.
Sir Gade rode toward a castle atop a zebra at a steady gallop, a long way from home. He arrived at the gate and the keeper knelt in shame. “Thy steed must be tired.” Sir Gade replied, “I am on direct orders from the King. Let me through.” A cougar, nettled by the noise, emerged from a shrub. “You must save me!” cried the gate man. Sir Gade, eyes filled with rancor, alighted and gazed toward the sky. An item fell from his cloak as drove his sword into the cougar’s spine. “Let me pass!” cried Sir Gade. The gate keeper, stunned from his saga, tentatively opened the gate, then retrieved the fallen item.
1. topaz – “atop a zebra” 2. opal – “gallop, a long” 3. amethyst – “shame. Thy steed” 4. diamond – “replied, I am on direct” 5. garnet – “cougar, nettled” 6. ruby – “shrub. You” 7. coral – “rancor, alighted” 8. kyanite – “sky. An item” 9. spinel – “spine. Let” 10. agate – “saga, tentatively”
Sir Gade rode toward a castle atop a zebra at a steady gallop, a long way from home. He arrived at the gate and the keeper knelt in shame. “Thy steed must be tired.” Sir Gade replied, “I am on direct orders from the King. Let me through.” A cougar, nettled by the noise, emerged from a shrub. “You must save me!” cried the gate man. Sir Gade, eyes filled with rancor, alighted and gazed toward the sky. An item fell from his cloak as drove his sword into the cougar’s spine. “Let me pass!” cried Sir Gade. The gate keeper, stunned from his saga, tentatively opened the gate, then retrieved the fallen item.
A clam or oyster. You harvest clams or oysters on the beach or go diving, and the beach is often windy and rainy. Neither bleeds but are known for having, soft, slimy meat, and people often drink the “clam nectar” or “oyster juice”.
A painter needed 3 days to paint a room. How long would it take him, working at the same rate, to paint a room twice as large (twice the width and twice the height)?
12 days because the walls would be four times as big as the first room.
If the walls are 10 ft x 10 ft, then each wall has 100 square feet. Adding the four walls makes 400 square feet to paint. Doubling the width and height of the walls to 20 ft x 20 ft means each wall is now 400 square feet, for a total of 1600 square feet to paint. 1600 ft is four times 400 square feet, thus if it took him 3 days to paint 400 square feet, it will take 12 days (or four times as much) to paint 1600 square feet.
A nine-letter word, common as air, When each letter’s cut, a new word to pare, Take a letter each round and continue to one. Name the word and the path and then you’ll be done.
Surprisingly, there are several nine-letter words that can have one letter removed in each round to make a new word all the way to one letter, which must be ‘a’ or ‘i’. Startling is the most common answer, but I’ve included the other words I’m aware of. I don’t include plural words, like cleansers, drownings, splatters, starvings, trappings and wrappings because it’s kind of cheating.
startling Remove the l to make starting (or remove the t to make starling) Remove the t to make staring Remove the a to make string Remove the r to make sting Remove the t to make sing Remove the g to make sin Remove the s to make in Remove the n to make I
splitting Remove the l to make spitting Remove the p to make sitting Remove a t to make siting Remove the first i to make sting Remove the s to make ting Remove the g to make tin Remove the t to make in Remove the n to make I
stringier Remove the r to make stingier Remove the i to make stinger Remove the t to make singer Remove the r to make singe Remove the g to make sine Remove the e to make sin Remove the s to make in Remove the n to make I
strapping Remove the s to make trapping Remove the t to make rapping Remove the p to make raping Remove the r to make aping Remove the a to make ping Remove the g to make pin Remove the p to make in Remove the n to make I