Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №21/1999

Riddles

What can run but never walks?
Has a mouth but never talks?
Has a bed but never sleeps?
Has a head but never weeps?

A River

A mile from end to end,
Yet as close to you as a friend.
A precious commodity, freely given.
Seen on the dead and on the living.
Found on the rich, poor, short and tall,
But shared among children most of all.

A Smile

Tear one off and scratch my head,
What once was red is black instead.

A Match

What is the beginning of eternity,
the end of time and space,
the beginning of every end
and the end of every race?

The letter E: Eternity, timE, spacE, End, racE

I have streets but no pavement.
I have cities but no buildings.
I have forests yet no trees.
I have rivers yet no water.
What am I?

A Map

We are little airy creatures,
All of different voice and features.
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you’ll find in a jet;
The other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within.
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.

Vowels

I am sometimes strong
and sometimes weak,
But I am nobody’s fool.
For there is no language that I can’t speak,
Though I never went to school.

An echo

If you have it,
You want to share it.
If you share it,
You don’t have it.
What is it?

A secret

Nothing on the outside
Nothing on the inside
Light as a feather
Yet ten men cannot lift it

A Bubble

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

Time

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.

Dark