1. Thinking Skills

2. 1. Death in a field
A man is lying dead in a desert hundreds of miles away from the nearest settlement. Next to him there is a large, unopened package. There is no other creature near to him.
The man jumped out of an aeroplane with a parachute on, but it failed to open.

3. 2. Anthony and Cleopatra
Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of a villa in Egypt. Nearby is a broken bowl. There is no mark on either of their bodies and they were not poisoned.
Anthony and Cleopatra are pet gold fish, whose bowl fell off the table.

4. 3. The man who hanged himself
Just outside Madrid, a man is found hanging from a high rafter in an empty barn. The rope around his neck is three metres long and his feet are one metre off the ground. The nearest wall is four metres away from the man. It is not possible to climb up the walls or along the rafters.
The man committed suicide by standing on a large block of ice, which then melted after he had hung himself.

5. 4. The coal, the carrot, and the scarf
Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn, but there is a perfectly logical reason why they should be there.
The objects had been used on a snowman

6. 5. Playing chess
Two boys were playing chess. They played five games, but they both won the same number of games, and there were no drawn games.
The two boys were playing against different opponents.

7. 6. The broken match
A man is lying dead, face down in a field. There's a single piece of a broken match near his outstretched hand. Where he is lying is close to the edge of a high mountain range.
The man was in a hot air balloon with several other people. When they realized they were sinking uncontrollably, they decided that someone had to be thrown out to save the rest of them. The man drew the short straw (or match).

8. 7. Bodies by the yacht
In the middle of a beautiful ocean is an empty yacht. Several corpses are floating in the water nearby.
The people on the yacht decided to go for a swim, but jumped in without lowering the ladder.

9. 8. Insomnia
A man is lying awake in a hotel room. He makes a phone call, says nothing, and goes to sleep.
  The man had been kept awake by the guest in the next room snoring, who was a friend of his. He called his friend, woke him up, and was then able to go to sleep.

10. 9. What’s your poison?
Two men enter a bar. They are served identical drinks. Both drink what they are served, and neither leaves the bar. One lives; the other dies.
     The drinks are poisoned, but the poison is in the ice cubes. The first man drinks quickly, not allowing the ice cubes to melt and release their poison; the second man drinks more slowly, and the poison kills him.

11. The Man in the Elevator
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work. When he returns he takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the 10th floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?
The man is a dwarf and can only reach the button for the 7th floor. On rainy days he uses his umbrella!

12. What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?
Your left hand, forearm or elbow

13. If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there was an oil lamp, a candle and firewood and you only have one match, which would you light first?
The match!

14. REASON

15. Key questions to answer:
What is reason?
How do we use reason? (eg ‘lateral thinking’)
What are the enemies of reason?
Does emotion help or hinder reason?