Monday, August 11, 2008

Lexis Nexis Hunt 2008—The Great Search For Edible Items

As a hunter I won't be happy when I find inaccuracies in questions, even if I can get the points for those questions. I have noticed a peculiar tendency amongst many CoCs and hunters alike. Not many of them would bother to burden their minds with small details. Small details to them are not important. "Why bother about grammar?", they'd say. There is no reason why they should care whether HATE means BENCI or DENGKI. As long as they can get the points for that question, they are happy.

When I put on the CoC's cap, my focus is always on those people who can't be bothered with details. I often design my questions to punish them. I enjoy throwing in the strict requirement for details and I'd use psychology to beat them. And, Oh! so very often I would succeed! Some people just never learn, you see. It makes my life so easy as a CoC; I can keep using the same tricks over and over again, and these people just don't know what's hitting them! But of course such an approach is not so effective against the masters. They are generally very, very meticulous people, so they don't fall into my traps that frequently.

Q13) Vowels with two sides remodeled for edibles.

The question that bothered me for a bit during the hunt. And then later, during the answer presentation, I was talking about this question with a member of Hunters "R" Us. Of course their team eventually emerged the champion for this hunt. I meant to post a comment about this question, but somehow forgot to do so until another friend reminded me through a text message.

According to the CoC, the word "Vowels" refers of course to the A, E, I, O, U; and the words "two sides" refer to L (left) and R (right). Then "remodeled" is the anagram indicator; and "edibles" is the definition. Essentially, what he's getting at is this: The A, E, I, O, U + L, R are to be rearranged to form another word; and the resulting word shall agree with "edibles".

A13) Aureilo Sdn Bhd @ Pejabat Urusan Foodstreet.

Notice that in spite of all those seemingly complicated analysis, the answer we are looking for is simply the word AUREILO, which resulted from the rearrangement of the vowels plus L and R.

That should be easy enough. I can't be sure about the masters and grandmasters, but I believe the not-so-serious hunters would be very happy if they can find AUREILO. That is a perfect fit as far as they are concerned.

But let me tell you that most, if not all, of the master hunters won't be happy because they would automatically raise the question: What has AUREILO got to do with "edibles"? It is the habit of thinking this further step ahead that usually separates the masters from the novice.

Well, if we are to google the word AUREILO, we might be able to find something that connects it to foodstuff. But that is something that is just too remote for the purpose of this question. I am more inclinced to believe that the CoC is a bit confused with the fact that the word AUREILO is found on a signboard containing the word FOODSTREET. But bear in mind that the answer is AUREILO. That word FOODSTREET is not the answer. It's sole purpose is just to tell the CoC the location of the answer, AUREILO.

In other words, AUREILO stands on its own; and if taken on its own, it does not equal to "edibles".

I know I may appear like a pain in the neck to many hunters out there. Why go through the trouble to analyse to that extent?, you might ask. Well, let me tell you that one of these days, the same CoC will throw in a red herring—and he is famous for that too—and you will fall right into his trap because you're ignoring a small detail lurking somewhere in the clue!

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