How to play
Fill in the missing words in the text below. (You can print the copy below.) There is no time limit on this one, unless you want to make it particularly difficult.
How to score
One point for each correct word inserted in the right place. The word must be exactly right: for example, if the actual word was “waters”, you would not get a point for “water” or “watery”.
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Who should win?
How do you measure a lifetime of experience? Our fluid intelligence – or ability to solve new problems – slows with age. But we make up the shortfall with more information lodged in our memory banks, which we use to inform our decisions. This fill-in-the-blanks exercise, known as the C-test, was developed to measure so-called crystallised intelligence, which comes from the school of hard knocks. It doesn’t last forever, though, says Purya Baghaei at Islamic Azad University in Tehran, Iran. “Fluid intelligence is expected to decline with age over the entire adulthood. However, crystallised intelligence is expected to increase through the 20s, become stable through adulthood and decline from around 65 or 70.”
How could you not love beavers? They a__ intensely so_____ and fo__ lifelong pai__. Each fam___ or col___ splits i__ duties: wh___ one ani___ gathers buil____ material, ano____ excavates t__ pond a__ yet ano____ watches t__ kits, kee____ an e__ out f__ predators o_rival colo____. A sin___ family c__ create a__ maintain te__ of squ___ kilometres o_ water infrast_______. They th__ local for____, both f__ building mate_____ and ba__, their pref_____ food, a__ store i_ in under_____ caches of sti___ and sm___ logs th__ also pro____ homes t_ baby fi__. Beavers ha__ webbed fe__, transparent eye____ and clos____ ear a__ nose-val___, all per____ for th___ largely aqu____ lifestyle. There’s also an inner lip behind their impressive incisors, allowing them to chew underwater without drowning.
This article appeared in print under the headline “The great family brain-off”
