As you may know, mem­ory relies mostly on some tem­po­ral (in green) and frontal (in red) areas of the brain. These may be the areas that will get stim­u­lated when you (assum­ing you are Amer­i­can or have lived in the US for long) try to remem­ber the miss­ing words in the Amer­i­can proverbs below.

How­ever when it comes to inter­na­tion­als proverbs below you may 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 exer­cise is more intense. Try to guess what the final words of each inter­na­tional proverb might be. Use your log­i­cal skills.

If you live out­side the USA, your expe­ri­ence will prob­a­bly be the reverse.

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.

Here you can find many more Brain Teasers.

— This arti­cle 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. She is now an Adjunct Fac­ulty at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity, and teaches Mem­ory Work­shops in numer­ous retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in the St Louis area.

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