Riddles

1. What is black and white and read all over?

2. Why should a bus be safe from lightning?

3. It works when it plays, and plays when it works.

4. When I go, I don’t speak; but when I stop, I lie. What am I?

5. What goes without moving from its place?

6. They stare at one another all the time, but never meet. What are they?

7. What is it that doesn’t ask questions but must be answered?

8. It dresses other people, but goes naked itself. What is it?

9. What musical instrument will you not believe?

10. What plate can’t you eat off?

11. Six legs, two heads, one tail. What is it?

12. Why are teeth like verbs?

13. When is a mouth not a mouth?

14. When is a nail not a fingernail?

15. When is it dangerous to have an arm?

16. What has a neck but no throat?

17. What is it that no one wishes to have, yet no one wishes to lose?

18. What is it that has always been and yet is only a month old?

19. Nobody saw it, but everybody heard it.

20. What has a bed, but never lies in it?

21. Which is the worst sort of weather for mice and rabbits?

22. Why are crows brave?

23. Why do five-day old chicks walk across the road?

24. When does a goose look like a snowball?

25. What does one half of an apple resemble?

26. What is white outside and yellow inside?

27. When is coffee like the earth?

28. How many peas can you put into an empty glass?

29. Why is the word thousand like the Sahara desert?

30. What is the longest word in English?

31. What two letters make something really rotten?

32. What makes a road broad?

33. What is that which occurs twice in a moment, once in a minute and never in a thousand years?

34. What letter of the alphabet goes all round Great Britain?

35. What color were the winds and waves in the storm?

36. Why is the letter a like 12 o’clock?

37. Which letter is the most useful to a deaf old woman?

38. Why is the letter t like an island?

39. What is it that you can keep even after giving it to somebody else?

40. What four letters would frighten a thief?

41. What match can’t be put in a match-box?

42. How can you keep cool at a football match?

43. What star is not seen in the sky?

44. What man cannot live inside the house?

45. When is a fool wise?

46. Why is a cherry like a book?

47. What is everything doing at the same time?

48. What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver?

49. What belongs only to you, and yet is used more by others than by yourself?

50. What question cannot be answered with “no”?

51. What question cannot be answered with “yes”?

52. Why is a coward like a leaky barrel?

53. Why is a fishmonger never generous?

54. Who is always happiest when he finds everything dull?

55. What clock shows the right time only twice a day?

56. Why do we all go to bed?

57. What is it that gets larger the more you take from it?

58. What is it that a man cannot live without?

59. Five birds were in the tree. A man shot at them and saw two fell. How many birds were left in the tree?

60. How many apples can you eat on an empty stomach?

61. What key does not lock a door?

62. When do fish receive letters?

63. Where does June come before May?

64. What is the best place to put the cake in?

65. When I eat, I live; but when I drink, I die. What am I?

66. What word becomes shorter by addition of a syllable?

67. Which travels at greater speed, heat or cold?

68. Which two letters of the alphabet have eyes?

69. Which is the strongest day in the week?

70. What goes up when the rain comes down?

71. What has four legs and can fly?

72. Why is a drawn tooth like something forgotten?

73. When is a film-producer like an astronomer?

74. When is a sick person a contradiction?

75. Why did the robin go to the library?

76. What do you call a very old aunt?

77. What do you call a cat that can jump far?

78. Why shouldn’t you loan books to a dog?

79. When does a door become a jar?

Answers: 1. A newspaper. 2. Because it has a conductor (conductor – кондуктор; проводник электричества). 3. A fountain. 4. A clock or a watch. 5. A clock. 6. The ceiling and the floor. 7. A telephone. 8. A needle. 9. A lyre (liar – лжец). 10. An empty one. 11. A horseman. 12. Because they may be regular, irregular or defective. 13. When a box of sweets makes it water. 14. When it is an iron nail. 15. When it is a firearm. 16. A bottle. 17. A bald head. 18. The Moon. 19. An echo. 20. A river. 21. When it rains cats and dogs. 22. Because they never show the white feather (to show the white feather – трусить). 23. To get to the other side. 24. When it looks round. 25. The other half. 26. An egg. 27. When it is ground. 28. Only one. 29. Because both contain sand. 30. Smiles. 31. d, k. 32. The letter b. 33. The letter m. 34. The letter c. 35. The winds blew (blue), the waves rose. 36. Because it is in the middle of day. 37. The letter A, because it makes her hear. 38. Because it is in the middle of water. 39. Your word. 40. o, i, c, u (Oh, I see you!) 41. A football match. 42. Sit next to a fan (fan – болельщик; веер). 43. A film star. 44. A snow man. 45. When he is silent. 46. Because it is read (red). 47. Growing older. 48. One minds the train and the other trains the mind. 49. Your name. 50. Do you hear? 51. Are you asleep? 52. Because they both run. 53. Because her business makes her sell fish (selfish – эгоистичный). 54. A knife grinder. 55. A broken clock. 56. Because the bed will not come to us. 57. A hole. 58. Your name. 59. Not a single one: they flew away. 60. Only one. 61. A music key. 62. When you drop them a line. 63. In the dictionary. 64. In the mouth. 65. Fire. 66. The word short becomes shorter by the addition of a syllable. 67. Heat, because you may catch cold. 68. A and B, because you say: A B C D (A B see D). 69. Sunday, because all the others are week (weak) days. 70. An umbrella. 71. Two birds. 72. Because it has gone out of your head. 73. When he discovers a new star. 74. When he is an impatient patient. 75. To find bookworms. 76. An antique! 77. A catapult! 78. It will make them dog-eared. 79. When it is ajar (приоткрыта).