📘 Part 3: Puzzles

This episode's vocabulary

To contribute (verb) - to be one of the reasons why something happens.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

To churn sth out (phrasal verb) - to produce large amounts of something quickly, usually something of low quality.

Neuroplasticity (noun) - the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.

Jigsaw (noun) - a picture stuck onto wood or cardboard and cut into pieces of different shapes that must be joined together correctly to form the picture again.

Underchallenged (adj.) - somebody doing tasks that are not challenging enough or that they're bored because there is not enough work.

Mischief (noun) - behaviour, especially a child's, that is slightly bad but is not intended to cause serious harm or damage.

Unruly (adj.) - unruly people are difficult to control and often do not obey rules.

Higgledy-piggledy (adj., adverb) - mixed up and in no particular order.

To shift (verb) - to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightly.

Menial tasks (adj.) - menial work is boring, makes you feel tired, and is given a low social value.

To immerse in sth - to become completely involved in something.

Puzzling (adj.) - difficult to explain or understand.

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Questions and Answers

M: So Rory, why do people like digital mind games?

R: Well, I suppose it always comes down to fun, doesn't it? People like to have fun, and digital games can be played anywhere, and they're very accessible. That contributes to their popularity. But I think the other thing is, they can always introduce an element of novelty, which is what people respond to. Because you can always update games and get new things for them that keep people engaged.

M: Why do people like digital puzzles?

R: Well, for the same reasons I mentioned, and it's a challenge. Everybody likes a challenge that's, you know, manageable, at the very least. If it wasn't challenging, it would get very boring and you'd be like, what's the point of doing this?

M: Do you think that in the future, we're going to have more digital puzzles?

R: I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest with you. They're churning out new kinds of, well, puzzles, games, in general, all the time. So why not?

M: Which age groups like puzzles the most?

R: Well, that's a good question. I'm tempted to say as older people since they can meet challenges more readily and you know, they can adjust the level of challenge. I could be wrong, though. Young people have greater neuroplasticity. So perhaps they can also respond in their own way too.

M: Are mind games, like crossword, puzzles popular in your country?

R: Well, I would say so. I mean, there's all kinds of things. Like my aunt always likes doing jigsaws, for example, and my parents do the crossword. My brothers, or at least my little brother plays video games, which are kind of puzzles. They have the similar elements to them, and you have to solve problems in them.

M: Why do parents let their children play puzzles?

R: Well, it beats the alternative, which is children being bored and underchallenged. And we all know what happens when that's the case, invariably leads them into mischief. And, you know, you just, it makes them unruly in their behavior unmanageable. So why not give them this challenge to overcome in a constructive fashion?

M: And do teachers use puzzles in their lessons?

R: I do, I used to just use word searches. And actually, the kids seem to like that a lot. But I also liked using word scrambles, which is when the letters are all higgledy-piggledy, and you have to put them in the right order.

M: What kinds of puzzles improve people's intelligence?

R: Oh, I don't think there are actually puzzles that can do that. Because to be honest, your intelligence is sort of fixed. And there's not really many games that can shift that. This would be difficult to prove cause and effect. Maybe sort of number, puzzles, or number games like Sudoku, for example. Because that, you know, working with numbers helps. It's a key part of measuring your intelligence quotient. But it's difficult to tell if people doing that improves their intelligence or if they'd already improved their intelligence in other way. I don't know how you would prove that.

M: But can you improve your intelligence with some puzzles and crosswords? They say that crosswords improve your intelligence.

R: I think you could probably exercise it to improve the speed of it, but I don't think you can increase it. I think it's fixed at birth genetically. I'm pretty sure you can move your IQ. What I'm saying is you can move your IQ up and down by a couple of points using due to various environmental factors. But it's not like it's not a huge difference that can be made in that sense.

M: Really? So you think that if the person is stupid, the person is stupid. That's it. Period, sorry, boy, we can't help you. You're just stupid by birth.

R: Well, I'm talking about IQ. And yes, but for example, there's a limited... No, no, the American army has, if you have an IQ lower than, I think it's 80, you cannot join the American army, for example, and you can't even do any menial tasks in the American army. And this is actually a serious problem. Because there are people that have this...

M: But you can work on your intelligence, you can improve your intelligence, take the test again, and off you go.

R: No, no, you can't. That's the thing. This has been done. They've tried this and it is possible to move your IQ a couple of points up and down, due to various factors, but it's not possible to make like great leaps of like 10 or 12 IQ points. That's never been done.

M: Why are detective stories attractive to people?

R: Well, everybody loves a mystery, don't they? And it can be fun to put the pieces together as the narrative progresses. At least that's why I like detective stories.

M: Which do you think is better? A detective movie or its original novel?

R: Well, I suppose it depends on what you want to get from the experience, doesn't it? The novel will immerse you in the experience of trying to solve the crime. Well, at least it will do it more than the movie will. And the movie will play up the dramatic elements, which people can also enjoy. But it will be more difficult to translate this experience of solving the murder mystery or whatever it is, into movies. That's hard.

M: Do you think many people nowadays enjoy puzzles? Or people are becoming lazier and they don't want to think anymore doing all these crosswords, jigsaw puzzles?

R: I don't know how you'd measure that. I mean, people will like to do things that challenge them. But maybe they'll like different forms of it. So maybe in the past, we like doing jigsaw puzzles and crosswords, but in the future, we'll prefer to do different things. But the concepts of being challenged and having fun will remain the same. But I don't even know how you would measure that. It's difficult to measure levels of boredom and subjective experiences like that.

M: Thank you very much, Rory, for your puzzling answers.

R: Hopefully, the vocabulary is not puzzling.

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Discussion

M: Yeah, when the examiner asks you a question of why bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, you can say, I suppose it comes down to blah, right? So, dear listener, am I okay with explaining things? Bla bla, bla, bla, but then you go blah, blah, and then you add blah, blah. So when it comes down to fun, it means like, it's because of fun.

R: Yeah, it's like saying, it depends on fun, for example.

M: Right. Yeah.

R: Or it's contingent on fun. We talked about this before.

M: Contingent.

R: It is contingent on fun.

M: So why do people like digital mind games? Oh, it comes down to fun.

R: Yeah, it's fun. Everybody likes it.

M: Yeah. Digital mind games? Like they mean? What do they mean by digital mind games? Not like some Warcraft or Need For Speed?

R: Well, I guess something like digital chess is like...

M: Oh, digital chess. Okay.

R: Here's a fun idea, though. Or a fun question, at least. Is Battleship a mind game? Because for me, I always think it's just random guessing.

M: Hmm. Interesting. I'd say a crossword is like a mind game. When you talk about IQ intelligence, you should mention the word neuroplasticity.

R: Yeah. We talked about this before, though.

M: Yes, is it plasticity?

R: Neuroplasticity.

M: Neuroplasticity. If you can like air it out. If you can just pronounce this word. Neuroplasticity. Yeah, give us a sentence?

R: Well, people have greater neuroplasticity when they're younger compared to when they're older. But it's just like, well, I was gonna say it's just how plastic. your neurons are. But that doesn't explain anything. It's just how readily your brain can adapt to new situations.

M: Yeah, how flexible you are. Right. So that's why children enjoy all puzzles. But then older people might not. What about a quest? Have you ever been to a quest? Life is a quest. Oh, life is a stage.

R: But it's, I know the quest in Russia is like a very specific thing. And I haven't done it. But I've seen people doing it.

M: I've done that with actors.

R: Nice.

M: Oh, Sarah is here with us. And Sarah has done a quest. So what did you do?

S: I was in a quest where we were in a "former factory of masks". And we had to find our way out because we had been locked in during a party that we were having.

R: That sounds great.

S: So we had to go through the rooms and locate different clues and different mechanisms for escaping from this room.

R: Is that like... Oh, I was gonna say, is that like an escape room? Are they the same thing?

S: Yes.

R: That's cool.

M: Did you escape?

S: We escaped just in time. We had I think two minutes remaining.

M: Would you say that it's a puzzle?

S: I would say it's a puzzle. It's a puzzle in a real-life area. A physical puzzle.

R: Did you have to speak Russian to do it?

S: This one yes. But they do have ones in English.

R: That's nice. I'd like to do that. Maybe when I get a holiday. Can I have a holiday, please?

M: No, we have recordings to do. No holiday for you. I did tell you to relax though.

R: Yes.

M: But recordings are, like you know, it's a kind of rest for you. He's looking at me with his crazy eyes.

S: It's coffee, so it must be like a rest.

M: Oh, anyway. Yeah. So a quest could be a puzzle, right? But digital puzzles, like online on the computer or on your phone.

R: But it's important to make sure you know the names of specific kinds of puzzles. We already talked about jigsaw crosswords, word searches.

M: Sudoku.

R: I've never done Sudoku, I hate numbers, but you've done it. Haven't you know Sarah

S: My father really likes Sudoku, but I find it to be quite challenging.

R: Well, that's why we're all English teachers anyway, no one needs numbers.

S: It's a puzzle to me.

R: Higgledy-piggledy? It just means out of order.

M: We need more examples with this.

R: Well, sometimes...

M: Looks like my favorite word.

R: Oh, when I drop my papers on the way to class, everything's higgledy-piggledy because it's out of order.

M: Higgledy-piggledy?

R: Yes.

M: All right.

R: If you want to just say out of order, then I don't think the examiner will penalize you for wanting to say that instead.

M: Can you say like, oh, my life is all higgledy-piggledy?

R: Probably. I hope not, though.

M: Sometimes. Yes, this is the most important word from this episode for you. So higgledy-piggledy, band nine, off you go.

R: I don't think it's by nine. It's just like a random phrase.

M: Well, you see, band nine words are words not sad by English students. So a typical English student, Sarah, would a typical student use this higgledy-piggledy thing?

S: No. And it's a very colloquial term that you'd only hear normally among Native speakers. So I agree that if an islet student used this term correctly, and in the correct context, during their answer, that it would definitely help them to achieve a higher score.

R: But you need to make sure that you hit all of those...

M: Yes, yes, naturally, and in the correct context, even if you want to squeeze it in to show it off that, oh, yes, I know this expression. Examiner would feel that it will be unnatural. So the listener, if you seriously are not sure, like, if you're not 100% 200% sure how to use it, don't use it, because you can get a lower score. So you were aiming for a nine, and then you use this higgledy-piggledy thing incorrectly, and then the score goes down for vocabulary. And it's band eight instead of nine. Yeah, it can happen. If you want to try and squeeze in all these nice idioms, and colloquial language. Back to puzzles.

R: And intelligence. And if you want to talk about one form of intelligence, you talk about IQ or intelligence quotient. Which is just like how much intelligence you have, from a certain perspective, because it only measures like linguistic, spatial and mathematical intelligence.

M: And, Rory, you said something like your intelligence seems to be largely fixed. And no amount of games can shift that?

R: Yes, so if something is fixed, or largely fixed, it means it's almost unchanging. You can change it a little bit. And the word shift here just means well, with IQ it goes up or down. So shifting is like changing in the direction backwards and forwards.

M: Can you say the amount of games?

R: Um, well, we've already talked about the difference between number and amount, though. And now it comes down to perception. You disagreed, but I don't.

M: I disagreed about what?

R: Well, I thought you could talk about the amount of people for example, or the amount of games, if you viewed it as something like a mass of something? If you see it that way, then it's correct. So it's to do with like how you see the world. But if you didn't put in that level of thought, then...

S: For example, I definitely say oh, wow, there's a huge amount of people here.

M: Yeah, but you're American, you can do that. Right.

M: Can't pay their taxes, can't get their grammar... Anyway, dear listener, so in the exam, you should be grammatically correct. And it's more grammatically correct to say the number of games however, people do say the amount of games and band nine can include some errors, slips, but sleeps characteristic of native speakers, right? So this is a typical thing. Like this is something very typical of native speakers to say. The amount of games. So they usually say these people, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of people.

R: There's less people here than there were before.

S: There's fewer Rory.

R: It should be there's fewer. Yeah. We've had this discussion.

M: Yeah, but you see so these kind of errors are characteristic of native speakers. That's why you can get away with that and get a band nine.

R: It's so few there. What else is there?

M: What?

R: Or what else are there? Oh, there we go. Is and are.

M: Yeah, is and are. Then you go me and Rory instead of Rory and nine. Very typical.

R: Never should have went.

M: Oh, never should have went.

R: That's what people in my hometown say a lot and you're like, oh. So it's about like assays subject-verb agreement?

S: As well as tenses, for example. It's really common to hear I got no idea instead of I've got no idea.

R: Or I don't got no idea.

S: Oh, let's not go there.

R: Oh, God. That's an Americanism though. You never hear us say that.

M: And then you go to the UK and somebody asks you, how is you?

R: How is you?

M: How is you? Instead of how are you? And then you go, what? Have you taken an IELTS test? What band did you have for speaking?

R: But most native speakers like if you don't prepare adequately for a test, then you won't get the score that you want. Like the first time I sat an IELTS exam, I got like band 8.5

M:: Did you do it?

R: I did it. We did it together.

S: He didn't say higgledy-piggledy.

R: That was the problem. This was before I knew anything about IELTS. I just did it for fun.

M: Oh, yeah, we did that.

R: We did that four years ago.

M: Right. And this current examiner, speaking examiner checked it. So you got 8.5 for speaking?

R: Yeah.

M: Really?

R: Well, I know I got 8.5 across the board.

M: What was the speaking score?

R: Speaking score is 8.5. So that's why if don't prepare for a test... Writing was eight.

M: I got nine.

R: Nice. Good for you. But that's why, that's why we tell people that they need to prepare for the test.

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they say that like native speakers, usually, yeah, they might get a nine for speaking because they're natural, they use colloquial phrases and phrasal verbs. But for writing could be an issue.

S: And even with speaking, if you haven't prepared adequately, a native speaker might not be sure to use different tenses, for example, or a wide variety of grammar structures.

R: Yeah. So that's one of the reasons I didn't get the high score the first time I did the test.

M: Yeah.

R: But then you look at the one I did with Brandon a month ago and it was great. It was band nine.

M: You've improved. Have you been listening to anything? Podcourse on phrasal verbs?

R: No, I've been teaching IELTS for years. Well, higgledy-piggledy is not a phrasal verb.

M: Oh, dear listener, so yeah, we've been talking about puzzles, games, but the keyword is higgledy-piggledy. Okay, that's okay.

R: However, what's not higgledy-piggledy is our ending. It's very organized and orderly. So thank you, once again, for tuning in.

M: Thank you very much for listening!

M,R,S: Bye!!!

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