As kiwirage said, the question mark indicates that the clue uses a different interpretation that what one would normally expect, something that is common practice in crossword puzzles. In this case, the interpretation is "Month whose name is the shortest," not "Month with the fewest days."
The clue does have a natural ambiguity, but, 68% are getting the answer right, so I don't see a need to change it. To "make money" is a perfectly common way of saying 'earn'.
Excellent Quiz Kiwirage! My only suggestion would be that you alter the clue for "sip" which is defined as drinking a little at a time, and has nothing to do with a straw. Other than that, well done!
One of the cleverest quizzes on here! However, I think your statistics are skewing towards people who took it multiple times. I am not one of the flawless savants who ace all these things, but I'm well above average on all two of the three skills needed here (and only average, I believe, for the word scramble part), but I absolutely needed more time. Maybe bump it up to 5:00 and see? And thanks for your hard work putting this together!
"Make money" and "shortest month" can clearly mean something different and therefore be easily misunderstood. Poor wording, no matter if you put a "?" at the end (which is kind of a copout for not wanting to write a better question).
As has been noted further up the comment thread, the question mark indicates a cryptic interpretation. It's a common device (used particularly in crosswords) to indicate there's a little bit of mischief or wordplay going on in the clue - that the clue is literally "questionable". Far from being a copout, it's exactly as I intended it to be. You both fell for it, unlike the majority of players who figured it out :)
Right you are, kiwirage. I understood that straight away. Well, maybe not straight, but then I thought, February has too many letters already to be only part of a country name, and I didn't fancy working that one out. So I looked for an easier option. May seemed right to me.
This kind of clue is extremely common practice in crossword puzzles. It's designed to make you think of an interpretation other than the most obvious one. You know, like a puzzle.
Also, "make money" is a very common term for "earn." If I asked you how much money you made last year, would you think I was asking about minting?
Crossword puzzles originated the convention of using a question mark at the end of a hint to indicate that it is a trick or pun. The usage here is quite standard. That's why over half of quiz-takers got it right.
How else would you describe the process of drinking through a straw? I got it right away, so the description is fine as it is. Funny side note: With just having SIP, I tried to work out what country could have those three letters in it. I got it on my first attempt, and then worked out the fruit from the country minus SIP. Not exactly the way it was intended, but hey - it worked.
I agree, but the clues have to make words that are anagrams of countries, so it is not so easy to find the right words sometimes. I think 'Drink slowly' would be a better clue.
Man, I suck at anagrams. I had every word in the first minute. Halfway through, and after solving none of them, I just started typing countries as fast as I could, which gave me three more answers. Good enough, I guess.
A few corners were cut, like that a musical twosome would be a duet, not a duo. A duo is just a general term for two people. Also, wizard should be accepted for wizards.
I don't know why I've never associated "sipping" with "using a straw". I always have envisioned sipping as drinking a little bit of liquid from a cup. So no wonder I could only think of "suck" and "slurp"
The clue about the Orange is too American for the rest of the world. Why would anyone know, or for that matter care about, that? There are a lot of better known clues that could be given for orange.
Just a note: the "musical" part of "musical twosome" makes me think duet and not duo. To me, duet=music, duo=other times. I found that really confusing
this is pretty common knowledge, though i do agree that we should start phasing out the harry potter questions that are so popular with these types of quizzes since JK Rowling is queer hating trash
The question mark is an indication that it's the shortest month in a way, but probably not the most obvious way. Crossword puzzles very frequently write clues like this. It's a puzzle to make you think outside the box.
Quite easy in my book! Only an uninformed delinquent wouldn't know these simple words. Heh, maybe it's just that my years of studying are finally paying off. Guess we'll never know! Anyway, okay quiz.
Also, February normally has 28 days, not 27.
What do you think?
Also, "make money" is a very common term for "earn." If I asked you how much money you made last year, would you think I was asking about minting?
I plan to make a french version of this "countries breakdown puzzle" of yours. Are you ok with it kiwirage? :)
I do not invite you to cheating, but this quiz inspired me to solve this problem with python :)
def containsAll(str, set):
for c in set:
if c not in str: return 0
return 1
countries = #large list of countries
small_word = 'HOUR' #our input word
i = 0
for country in countries:
if containsAll(country, set(small_word)):
print(country, end = '\t')
i += 1
if not i%10 and i>10:
print()
edit: oh, its the shortest in spelling
good puzzle