CiSRA Puzzle Competition 2009 - Solutions

This is the archive of the 2009 Puzzle Competition. Please visit the current competition site for information about the latest Puzzle Competition.

A.5 Headless Snake

The secret to solving the clues is that they all describe back-formed "words", made by removing what looks like a prefix from a word in which those letters are not really a prefix. An additional hint is given by the red letter or letters in each clue - these mark all the places in the clue where the relevant prefix can be seen in successive letters.

Taking the first clue: "Something which is as good as or better." The fake prefix starts with the letter "i". An inferior is something which is worse than something else. According to the puzzle, this is parsed as in-ferior, or something which is "not ferior". If an inferior is strictly worse, than a ferior is something as good as or better than something else. The answer to the first clue is: ferior. This goes in the six boxes provided next to the clue.

Working down the remaining clues, we have:

• An object with no copies is unique, or un-ique. An object with lots of copies is therefore ique.
• An acceptance of responsibility and show of regret is an apology, or a-pology. Denial of responsibility and showing no regret is therefore a pology.
• The knowledge of signs is semiotics, or semi-otics. The knowledge of pairs of signs is therefore otics.
• Occuring at lots of particular times is re-gular. Occurring at a particular time is therefore gular.
• To press two rows of teeth into something is to bite, or bi-te. To press one row of teeth into something is therefore to te.
• A state of having more than you need is excessive, or ex-cessive. The state just before you had more than you need is therefore cessive.
• To overcome all your trials is to tri-umph. To overcome just a third of them is therefore to umph.
• Having a sense of dissatisfaction is to be dis-gruntled. So to have a sense of satisfaction is to be gruntled.
• A type of cable over which electronic messages are passed is an e-thernet. So a type of cable over which non-electronic messages are passed is a thernet.
• Measurements which are very accurate are pre-cise. Afterwards, if noise is added, they must therefore become cise.
• An expected event is anti-cipated. One which will be unexpected is therefore cipated.
• One language with no canonical written form is Sanskrit, or sans-krit. Therefore a language with a canonical written form is krit.
• Something which can't be ignored is im-portant. So if you can simply ignore it, it is portant.
• To cast aspersions on a group is to de-monise them. To allow them to remain being considered angelic must then be to monise them.

Writing the answers to each clue in the provided boxes, we see that the curly line passes through some of the boxed letters. (The "prefixes" are shown for completeness only - they are not part of this step.)

Following the line from the "s" is "cise" gives the following message:

SCRUPLE MAKING YOU LESS VICIOUS

The "L" in "LESS" is in a red box, so this gives a hint as to what is to be removed from a real word to make the answer to this clue. In this case however, it is a suffix, not a prefix.

To be vicious is to be ruthless, or ruth-less. This can be read as a lack of a quality, or scruple, that makes you less vicious. That scruple, and the puzzle solution, is therefore RUTH.