--- title: Trick questions that catch quick thinkers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Trick questions that catch quick thinkers», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Trick questions are built to catch quick thinkers: they get you starting the sum before you have read all the words. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Trick questions that catch quick think… # Trick questions that catch quick thinkers Lesson 181 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/0/) — Trick questions are built to catch quick thinkers: they get you starting the sum before you have read all the words. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/1/) — "A farmer has 17 sheep. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/2/) — All but 9 run away. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/4/) — Right sum, wrong question. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/5/) — Some hide a false idea inside the question: roosters don't lay eggs and electric trains make no smoke, so before you answer "which way?", check that the question makes sense. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/6/) — Others hide a step everyone skips (in a dark room you light the match first) or an idea nobody actually said (who said the dog's rope was tied to anything?). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/7/) — The cure is slow and simple: read every word, ask "what did it actually say?", then answer. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/8/) — Getting caught is normal; laugh at the trick, not at the person, and remember it next time. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/9/) — A kilogram of feathers weighs exactly the same as a kilogram of bricks; the feathers just take up much more space. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/10/) — If you overtake the runner in second place, you take second place; the leader is still ahead of you. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/11/) — All 12 months have at least 28 days; only February has just 28 (or 29 in a leap year). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/12/) — "All but 9" means "all except 9", so if all but 9 sheep run away, 9 sheep are left. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/13/) — Roosters are male chickens and don't lay eggs. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/14/) — Electric trains don't burn fuel on board, so they make no smoke. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/15/) — In "Mike's mum has three children: April, May and...", the third child is Mike. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/16/) — Three pills, one every half hour, starting now, are taken at 0, 30 and 60 minutes, so they are all gone in one hour. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/17/) — Counting the moments instead of the gaps between them (or the other way round) is called the fence-post error. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/18/) — Two fathers and two sons can be just three people: a grandfather, his son and his grandson, because the middle one is both a father and a son. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/19/) — In a dark room with one match, you light the match first. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/181-trick-questions-that-catch-quick-thinkers/20/) — A dog on a 3-metre rope can reach a bone 5 metres away if the other end of the rope isn't tied to anything. - ← previous: [Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/180-correlation-is-not-cause-ice-cream-and-sunburn/) - next →: [Sounds wrong, but is right](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/182-sounds-wrong-but-is-right/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)