#19. Exercise your memory and reasoning skills with these proverbs

Mem­o­ry relies most­ly on the tem­po­ral (in green) and frontal (in red) lobes of the brain. Neu­rons and synaps­es in these areas will get stim­u­lat­ed when you try to remem­ber the miss­ing words in the Amer­i­can proverbs below (assum­ing you are Amer­i­can or have lived in the US for long).

How­ev­er, when it comes to the inter­na­tion­als proverbs below, you will have to use your rea­son­ing skills more than your mem­o­ry skills, as it is like­ly that you do not know these proverbs. In this case, the frontal lobe exer­cise is more intense.

Of course, if you live out­side the USA, your expe­ri­ence will prob­a­bly be the reverse!

Try to guess what the miss­ing words of each proverb might be. Use your mem­o­ry and/ or log­i­cal skills 🙂

US proverbs

1. The ear­ly bird gets the ___________.
2. After all is _______ and done, more is said than __________.
3. From ___________ begin­nings come great ____________.
4. Don’t ___________ hors­es while cross­ing a ____________.
5. There are three kinds of _________; those that make ________ hap­pen, those that watch things __________ and those who don’t know what’s _______________.
6. The frog does not ____________ the pond in which he __________.

Inter­na­tion­al proverbs

1. With enough “ifs” we could put Paris into a _________. (France)
2. Write injuries in sand, kind­ness­es in ____________.  (France)
3. A closed mouth catch­es no _____________ .  (France)
4. Appetite comes with _______________ .  (France)
5. If you are look­ing for a fly in your food it means that you are ___________. (South Africa)
6. Behold the igua­na puff­ing itself out to make itself a ____________.  (South Africa)
7. Milk the cow, but do not pull off the ___________. (Greece)
8. If you want to gath­er a lot of knowl­edge, act as if you are _________________. (Viet­nam)

Solutions

US proverbs

1. The ear­ly bird gets the worm.
2. After all is said and done, more is said than done.
3. From small begin­nings come great things.
4. Don’t change hors­es while cross­ing a stream.
5. There are three kinds of peo­ple; those that make things hap­pen, those that watch things hap­pen and those who don’t know what’s happening.
6. The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.

Inter­na­tion­al proverbs

1. With enough “ifs” we could put Paris into a bottle.
2. Write injuries in sand, kind­ness­es in marble.
3. A closed mouth catch­es no flies.
4. Appetite comes with eating.
5. If you are look­ing for a fly in your food it means that you are full.
6. Behold the igua­na puff­ing itself out to make itself a man!
7. Milk the cow, but do not pull off the udder.
8. If you want to gath­er a lot of knowl­edge, act as if you are ignorant.

Next brain teas­er in Sharp­Brains’ top 25 series:

• #20. Find the miss­ing num­ber in The Emp­ty Triangle

 

— This teas­er was writ­ten by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, Ph. D., for Sharp­Brains. Dr. Mich­e­lon has a Ph.D. in Cog­ni­tive Psy­chol­o­gy and has worked as a Research Sci­en­tist at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in Saint Louis, in the Psy­chol­o­gy Depart­ment. She con­duct­ed sev­er­al research projects to under­stand how the brain makes use of visu­al infor­ma­tion and mem­o­rizes facts.

To explore more fun brain teasers, puzzles and games:

• Cel­e­brate Hal­loween with nine great rid­dles about Life and Death
• 25 fun Brain Teasers and Puz­zles for teens and  adults of any age
• What are cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties and how to boost them?