A Difficult Question
Four girls went to school every day by taxi.
One day one of the girls said , “ There’s a test this morning . Let’s get to school late . Then we won’t have to take the test . ”
“ What can we tell the teacher ? ” one of the girls said . “ He’ll be angry , We’ll need a good excuse . ” The girls thought for several moments , then one of them said , “
Let’s tell him that our taxi had a flat tire . ”
“ That’s a good idea , ” the other girls said . “ We’ll tell him that . ”
They arrived at school an hour later . The test was finished .
“ Why are you late ? ” the teacher asked . “ You missed the test . ”
“ Our taxi had a flat tire , ” one of the girls said .
The teacher thought for a moment , then he said , “ Sit down , one of you in each corner of the room .”
The four girls did this .
Then the teacher said , “ Write on a piece of paper the answer to this question : Which tire was flat ? ”
四个女同学天天一起坐出租车去学校。
一天,他们其中一位说,“今天早晨有场考试,我们一起迟到。到时候我们就不用考了。”
“我们怎样对老师解释?”另一位说,“他会非常生气。我们需要一个好的理由。”
她们想了一会,其中一位说,“我们告诉他,我们的出租车有一个轮胎漏气了。”
“那真是个好主意,”其他几位说。“我们就告诉他这个。”她们迟到了一小时。考试已经结束。
“为什么你们迟到?”老师问“你们错过了考试!”
“我们的出租车有一个轮胎漏气了!”一位女同学说。
老师想了一会,说,“坐下,每人到各自的一个角落”
四个女同学按要求坐好。
老师说,“把这个问题的答案写在一张纸上:四个轮子中,哪个漏气了?”