Readin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmatic Quiz

Answer: loquacious

Loquacious and prolix both mean "long-winded or wordy."

In Charles Dickens' novel 'Little Dorrit,' Mr. Plornish is very prolix.

'Impavid' means fearless, 'roseate' means optimistic, and 'dilatory' means inclined to delay.

Answer: bad manners

An impropriety is a thoughtless or inappropriate act. Think of it as the noun form of 'improper.' (In 'Emma," Frank Churchill's improprieties include paying undue attention to the title character when he really shouldn't.)

Answer: Build another monster to be his wife

The monster is asking for a wife, "one as deformed and horrible as myself," with "the same defects." In other words, a monster like himself. He tells the doctor that if he gets a wife, they'll go off and never bother humanity. But if the doctor refuses, he will kill the doctor's entire family.

Answer: allusion

An allusion is a reference to something, often oblique. An illusion is something unreal, such as a mirage. The two are often mixed up.

Answer: It's my belief that you're wrong about their going.

It's = It is. 'It is my belief,' not 'Its my belief.' 'Its' is the possessive form of it, as in "The house is nice, but its walls need painting."

You're = you are. 'You are wrong,' not 'your wrong.' Your is the possessive form, again, as in "Your belief is wrong."

In this sentence, 'their' is used as a possessive for the gerund (the noun form of a verb). 'Their going' is equivalent to 'their trip.' If you said 'they're going,' that would be correct by itself (meaning they are going), but not here, used as the prepositional object of this sentence.

Answer: My grandfather emigrated from Russia in 1904.

To emigrate is to leave a country.

In the clean room sentence, the proper form is "You are supposed to."

In the guilty man sentence, the correct word is "inferred." You can infer something from hints and clues, but 'to imply' means to drop the hints, not receive them.

In the honorable man sentence, the correct term is "moral principles." A principal is the head of a school (among other things), but a principle is a basic truth or belief.

Answer: 11

The exact value of x is 10.875, but I wanted it to be able to be solved mentally with no advanced calculations required.

You could do this with a calculator, subtracting 12 from both sides to get 8x = 87 and then dividing 87 by 8 to get 10.875. But if you just look at the equation and the possible answers and think a bit, you can see that 8 times 11 is 88, and 88 + 12 is 100, which is close enough to the given value of 99 to make 11 the correct choice.

Answer: 3/8

The first part of this problem is simple fraction addition. 1/2 + 1/8 must be converted so that both addends have the same denominator. So write 1/2 as 4/8, then add 1/8 to get 5/8. That is how much of the pizza Guy and I ate.

But! The question did not ask how much we ate, but how much was LEFT OVER. So you must subtract the eaten amount, 5/8, from the whole (written as 8/8) to get the answer, 3/8.

If this is confusing you, think of a pizza with 8 slices and work it out from there. I eat four, which is half the pizza, and Guy eats one, which leaves... You guessed it. Three. 3/8.

Answer: six inches

This question calls for the greatest common factor for both numbers. In this case, the GCF of 72 and 42 is six (there is no higher number that divides evenly into both those numbers).

So Cletus can cut the copper pipe into 12 six-inch pieces and the lead pipe into 7 six-inch pieces.

Answer: allegory, accept, 113

An allegory is an extended analogy or other non-literal representation. Aposiopesis is the deliberate failure to complete a thought, used for effect, as in, "Why, I oughtta..."

To accept something is to take it (as work, or fate) or to welcome (as a person). To except something is to leave it aside so it can't be considered. If the work is shoddy, it logically follows that the best choice is that one couldn't accept it.

The sequence is as follows: x, x + 7, (x + 7)*2, [(x + 7)*2] + 7.... In other words, alternate adding seven, then doubling the result. One plus seven is eight, which is doubled to sixteen; that plus seven is 23, doubled becomes 46 and so on. So 106 + 7 = 113.