先邀请大家完成一个非常欢乐的智力测试。

How Smart Are You?
 
1. You’re participating in a race. You finally overtake the second person. What position are you in?
 
2. And if you just overtook the last person, then you are…?
 
3. Some very puzzling arithmetic! This must be calculated in your head only. Don’t use a calculator or even paper and pencil for this. Add 40 to 1000. Now add 1000. Add 30 more. Add 1000. Now add 20 more. Add another 1000. Add 10 more. What is the total?
 
4. Mary’s father had five lovely daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono… What’s the name of the fifth daughter?
 
5. A mute person goes into some shop to buy himself a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing his teeth, he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and manages to buy it. Then a blind man comes into the shop and wants to buy a pair of sunglasses; how would HE indicate what he wants?
 
 
Answers to the quiz:
 
1. If you answered that you’re first, then you’re absolutely WRONG! If you overtake the second person and you take his place, YOU’RE in second place.
 
2. If you answered you’re second to last, then you’re WRONG again. How can you overtake the LAST person?!
 
3. Did you get 5000? It’s not very accurate… The correct answer is actually 4100.
 
4. Did you Answer Nunu? No! Of course it’s incorrect. Her name is Mary. Read this question again!
 
5. It’s very simple, really: He opens his mouth and ask for it…

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这段唯美的视频似乎是由大千世界中的各种场景毫无意义地拼接而成的，而事实上却并非如此。视频中的片段是精心选择的，它们描述了生活中最常见的一些单词。这就给大家留下了一个小小的谜题：这段视频究竟是以哪些单词为主题的？你能找全吗？

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    我曾经在这里介绍过一种叫做 autogram 的文字游戏，简单说就是“与自身相符的句子”，或者更简单地叫做“自我描述句”。例如，“这句话是用中文写的”、“这句话有七个字”等等。蛋疼的人还真不少，有人创作出了一些异常牛 B 的 autogram ，比如：

This autogram contains five a’s, one b, two c’s, two d’s, thirty-one e’s, five f’s, five g’s, eight h’s, twelve i’s, one j, one k, two l’s, two m’s, eighteen n’s, sixteen o’s, one p, one q, six r’s, twenty-seven s’s, twenty-one t’s, three u’s, seven v’s, eight w’s, three x’s, four y’s, and one z.

 
    1982 年， Scientific American 月刊上刊登了一个 autogram 杰作：

Only the fool would take trouble to verify that his sentence was composed of ten a’s, three b’s, four c’s, four d’s, forty-six e’s, sixteen f’s, four g’s, thirteen h’s, fifteen i’s, two k’s, nine l’s, four m’s, twenty-five n’s, twenty-four o’s, five p’s, sixteen r’s, forty-one s’s, thirty-seven t’s, ten u’s, eight v’s, eight w’s, four x’s, eleven y’s, twenty-seven commas, twenty-three apostrophes, seven hyphens and, last but not least, a single !

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有时候会觉得日文很有喜感，印象最深的就是第一次听说“努力学习”在日文中写作“一生悬命勉强”时，真把我笑得前俯后仰。今天网上闲逛，偶入一日文数学网站，惊奇地发现里面的大多数日文数学名词我都能看懂，并且依旧给人带来一种新奇的陌生感：“多边形”叫做“多角形”，“梯形”叫做“台形”，“切线”叫做“接线”，等等。于是我想到了下面这个有趣的游戏：我在日文 Wikipedia 中挑选了一些词汇，看看大家能否猜得到它们的意思。括号里的数字表明对应的汉语名词有几个字。

=== 数学篇 ===
1. 自乗 (2)
2. 確率 (2)
3. 合同 (2)
4. 二進法 (3)
5. 放物線 (3)
6. 背理法 (3)
7. 暗号理論 (3)
8. 天井関数 (5)
9. 数理論理学 (4)
10. 可付番集合 (4)
11. 鳩の巣原理 (4)
12. 半順序関係 (4)
13. 位相幾何学 (3)
14. 連続体仮説 (5)
15. 排他的論理和 (2)
16. 双子素数の予想 (6)
17. ユークリッド原論 (4)
18. 一対一上への写像 (4)
19. 平方剰余の相互法則 (5)
20. ゲーデルの不完全性定理 (8)

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