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[1382586756] Cryptograms

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CRYPTOGRAMS

A cryptogram is a sentence or quotation in which different letters are substituted for the correct ones. The solving of these secret messages has been appealing to many famous people in history. Lord Bacon was one of the most renowned cryptogram solvers in his day and Edgar Allan Poe featured a cryptogram in his story "The Gold Bug."

SOLVING HINTS

Start by searching for short words like "an," "the," "a," "I,"and "is." Contractions like "can't," "didn't," and "there's" are usually easy to spot. Look for the word 'people," which has 2 p's and 2 e's in distinctive positions and other words with repeating letters. The frequency of letters in the English language is also a guide: E T A O N S and I are the most common. (Did you know that the letter E is used on average 60 times for every Z in our language?) Be on the lookout for "ing," "tion," and "ed" at the ends of words.

As with any puzzle solving, there is nothing like a little practice. Even if you have never before solved a Cryptogram, by the time you reach the 300th Cryptograms puzzle, you will be an expert. Once someone try to demonstrate on how to solve cryptograms. After discussing vowel-consonant patterns and letter frequencies, he proceeded to substitute letters until he realized that he had everything wrong! You can never get expert enough! Cryptograms are challenging and also relaxing. When one is done, you enjoy the quotation and you take with you the satisfaction of breaking the code and finishing the puzzle!

CRYPTO-CLANS

Each Crypto-Clan is a list of related words in code. Look at the title and then example. Then, try to identify words in the list by their letter patterns. There are seven groups of puzzles in any exercise, with six puzzles in each group.

Each puzzle uses a different code. If the title were "PRESIDENTS," you'd look for "WASHINGTON," "TRUMAN," and "OBAMA," for example, in the list.

VARIETY CRYPTOGRAMS

There are other cryptogram puzzles in any exercise, each with its own set of instructions, given on the puzzle's question.

DVJK QWX CPTJBXY GDKCK OWFFTKC !

HAVE FUN SOLVING THESE PUZZLES !