LINGUIST Through the Looking Glass
Since you had such an easy time with the first batch of Lewis Carroll problems, we've decided to give you a little more of a challenge. We've relaxed the rules a bit from last time. You may add one letter, delete one letter, or substitute a new letter for an existing letter at each step. After each step you must still have a valid English word. Any word that is not a proper name which can be found in a Scrabble dictionary is fair game!
Email the puzzle team with your solutions. Solve 1 and 2 for a chance at one of 3 copies of The Studies of Foreign Languages and Culture. Solve 3 and 4 for a chance at one of 3 copies of The Studies of Foreign Languages and Culture, Vol 2. Solve 5 and 6 for a chance at one of 3 copies of Studies on Modern Phonetics and Phonology. Solve 7 for a chance at one of 3 copies of Phonetic and Phonological Studies on Tianjin Dialect. The first person to solve #8 gets the Frequency Dictionary of Czech.
Join us “Through the Looking Glass” for this last Fun Friday.
Example
Transforming OUR to GANG: OUR FUR FAR FAN FANG GANGLooking Glass Puzzle 1
Our first puzzle has seven parts. Transform each word into the next in the following phrase. Note: none of these transformations should require more than 7 steps.
THANK YOU! THIS YEAR HAS BEEN GREAT FUN!
- Transform THANK to YOU
- Transform YOU to THIS
- Transform THIS to YEAR
- Transform YEAR to HAS
- Transform HAS to BEEN
- Transform BEEN to GREAT
- Transform GREAT to FUN
Looking Glass Puzzle 2
Transform FUND to DRIVE
Looking Glass Puzzle 3
Transform GIVE to MONEY
Looking Glass Puzzle 4
Transform SHORT to LONG
Looking Glass Puzzle 5
Transform HARD to GAMES
Looking Glass Puzzle 6
Transform ADDLED to BRAIN
These last two are the cream of the crop, the absolute most difficult Lewis Carroll puzzles this Fund Drive. They are worth extra points if you can do these according to the rules of the first Lewis Carroll problem challenge! That is to say, by only changing letters, not adding or removing them. Both of these can be solved in this manner.
Looking Glass Puzzle 7
Transform JUGGLER to TANGLED
Looking Glass Puzzle 8
FOR EXPERIENCED PUZZLERS! The shortest solution we could find for this puzzle required 15 steps, or 20 by the old rules!
Transform ONSET to LEARN