SUDOKU
LEVEL A.2 - B.1
Sudoku: a marketing disaster?
What is Sodoku? A publishing company which is called Nikoli introduced the puzzle in Japan in 1984. Sudoku (pronounced sue-do-koo) means 'Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru' which can be translated as 'the numbers must be single'.
The marketing disaster?, Sudoku became a very popular puzzle in the UK at the beginning of 2005. All of the most popular daily newspapers have Sudoku puzzles. And now a television company, which is called 'Sky One', has a TV quiz show, 'Sudoku'.
Here is a promotion from June 2005. 'Sky One' was promoting its new TV quiz show,
The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle: Win £5000!
You can see the world's largest Sudoku Puzzle on a large hill in the UK, near a town called Chipping Sodbury. It is 84 metres across, and 'The Guinness Book of Records' say it is 'The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle'.
You can win £5,000 if you complete this difficult puzzle!
But this publicity event went wrong when people saw that the puzzle had 1,905 correct solutions! Or maybe Sky One wanted as many people to complete the puzzle as possible. What do you think?
Can you complete it? Have a go! There are almost 2,000 solutions, but it is still very difficult. Use the grid below to help you,
How to play: the rules of Sudoku. The goal is to put numbers in the empty boxes in the 9x9 grid so that each column, row, and each 3x3 square has the numbers 1-9 ONLY once.
A possible solution. To find one possible solution, highlight the puzzle and then shade it grey. (Przykładowe rozwiązanie. Aby otrzymać przykładowe rozwiązanie, zaznacz siatkę i zmień tło na szare).
Language notes:
a column
- The Excel® spread sheet has 12 columns, A to L.
- The soldiers stood in 15 columns.
to go wrong
- Everything went wrong in my exam.
- Why didn't you enjoy the party? What went wrong?
a grid/s
- A chess board is a grid of 64 squares, 8x8.
- Alonso is on the front row of the grid at this weekend's F1 race.
a large something (larger, the largest)
- I live in a very large apartment block.
- My flat is larger than yours but Marcin's flat is the largest.
a marketing disaster/s
- We made a mistake when we cut the price of our product. It was a marketing disaster.
- The marketing disaster cost the company over $3 million dollars.
to promote something
- The compant is promoting its New produkt on TV.
- How can we promote the product this Christmas?
a publicity event.
- For the publicity event, the company invited David Beckham and his wife.
- The publicity event went wrong when the photographer didn't arrive.
to publish something
- The company will publish its sales results next week.
- The next 'Harry Potter' story will be published in 2007 or 2008.
a puzzle/s
- Crosswords are my favourite type of puzzle.
- I finished the Sudoku puzzle in 30 minutes.
a row/s
- I sat in the back row of seats at the cinema.
- The Excel ® spread sheet has 12 columns, A to L, and 3 rows.
a rule/s
- The 'offside rule' in football is difficult to understand.
- The company has a rule about casual clothes on Fridays.
a solution/s (to a puzzle, problem)
- The solution to the (7 - 3) x 6 is 24. Yes, the solution is 24.
- Do you know the solution to this problem?
LEVEL B1.5 - B.2
Sudoku: a marketing disaster?
What is Sodoku? The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli, which is a publishing company specialising in puzzles, in 1984. Sudoku (pronounced sue-do-koo) is an abbreviation of 'Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru' which can be translated as 'the numbers must be single'.
The marketing disaster. Recently, Sudoku has become a very popular puzzle in the UK. All of the major daily newspapers have Sudoku puzzles and now there is even a TV game show which is based on the Japanese number game.
Here is an advertisement from June 2005 which was on the website of Rupert Murdoch's media group 'Sky' in the UK,
The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle: Win £5000!
Constructed on an enormous hillside near the town of Chipping Sodbury in the UK, the world's largest Sudoku Puzzle is an important piece of public art. Up to a million cars are expected to pass by the giant puzzle which measures 84 metres. The Guinness Book of Records has recognised this as 'The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle'.
To celebrate this fact, Sky One is offering one lucky Sudoku enthusiast the chance to win £5,000, by solving this particularly difficult puzzle.
However, this publicity event went wrong when it was discovered that the puzzle had 1,905 correct solutions! Or maybe Sky One wanted as many people to solve the puzzle as possible. What do you think?
Can you work it out? Have a go! Although there are almost 2,000 solutions, it is still very difficult. Use the grid below to help you,
How to play: the rules of Sudoku. The goal is to fill in the empty boxes in the 9x9 grid so that each column, row, and each 3x3 square has the numbers 1-9 ONLY once.
A possible solution. To find one possible solution, highlight the puzzle and then shade it grey.
Language notes:
an abbreviation/s
- 'POS' is an abbreviation of 'point of sale'.
- 'ASAP' is an abbreviation of 'as soon as possible'.
a grid/s
- A chess board is a grid of 64 squares, 8x8.
- Alonso is on the front row of the grid at this weekend's F1 race.
a marketing disaster/s
- We made a mistake when we cut the price of our product. It was a marketing disaster.
- The marketing disaster cost the company over $3 million dollars.
to measure something
- The Statue of Liberty measures almost 300 feet high.
- We must measure how popular the new product is before we invest any more money.
a publicity event.
- For the publicity event, the company invited David Beckham and his wife.
- The publicity event went wrong when the photographer didn't arrive.
a puzzle/s
- Crosswords are my favourite type of puzzle.
- I finished the Sudoku puzzle in 30 minutes.
a solution/s (to a puzzle, problem)
- The solution to the (7 - 3) x 6 is 24. Yes, the solution is 24.
- Do you know the solution to this problem?
to solve something
- I don't believe it is difficult to solve '(7 - 3) x 6'.
- Have you solved the communication problem with the key account yet?
to work (something) out
- I don't believe it is difficult to work out '(7 - 3) x 6'.
- Have you worked out the communication problem with the key account yet?
LEVEL C1
Sudoku: a marketing disaster?
What is Sodoku? The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli, a publishing company which specialises in puzzles, in 1984. Sudoku (pronounced sue-do-koo) is an abbreviation of 'Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru' which can be translated as 'the numbers must be single' or 'the numbers must occur only once'.
The marketing disaster. Recently, Sudoku has become a very popular puzzle in the UK. All of the major daily newspapers have Sudoku puzzles and now there is even a TV game show which is based on the Japanese number game.
Here is an advertisement from June 2005 which appeared on the website of Rupert Murdoch's media group 'Sky' in the UK,
The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle: Win £5000!
Constructed on an enormous hillside near the town of Chipping Sodbury, just off the M4 motorway, the world's largest Sudoku Puzzle is a significant piece of public art. Up to a million cars are expected to pass by the giant puzzle which measures 84 metres across and, with Sudoku mania gripping the nation, The Guinness Book of Records has recognised this as 'The World's Largest Sudoku Puzzle'.
To celebrate this fact, Sky One is offering one lucky Sudoku enthusiast the chance to win £5,000, by solving this particularly fiendish puzzle.
However, this publicity stunt went awry when the puzzle was found to have 1,905 correct solutions! Or maybe Sky One wanted as many people to solve the puzzle as possible. What do you think?
Can you crack it? Have a go! Although there are almost 2,000 solutions, it is still fiendishly difficult. Use the grid below to help you,
How to play: the rules of Sudoku. The goal is to fill in the empty boxes in the 9x9 grid so that each column, row, and each 3x3 square contains the numbers 1-9 ONLY once.
A possible solution. To find one possible solution, highlight the puzzle and then shade it grey.
Language notes:
an abbreviation/s
- 'POS' is an abbreviation of 'point of sale'.
- 'ASAP' is an abbreviation of 'as soon as possible'.
a fiendish somebody/something
- It was an unethical, fiendish plan to destroy the competitor's new sales promotion.
- The new CEO is fiendishly clever - I wouldn't like to be his enemy!
a stunt
- The film 'The Island' is full of senseless stunts.
- As a publicity stunt, the celebrity took off all his clothes and sang the national anthem on TV.
to go awry
- The publicity stunt went awry when the celebrity forgot the words to the song.
- Our sales forecast went awry in July when our main competitor launched a similar product.
to crack something (a problem, a code)
We must crack the problem of falling sales before we all pose our jobs!
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