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Dear Ed,

This is an example of the type of question potential new Parish Councillors will have to answer before selection. Question and answer shown here from last election.

Question

There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?

Answer

The base word is startling - starting - staring - string - sting - sing - sin - in - I


This comprises some of the training given to Parish Councillors when newly elected so that they can read (internal) correspondence 

Question

It's Prttey fnuny how we can raed tihs einrte snetnece wtih all tehse ltters all out of palce, and we can cnotniue to keep raednig and sitll mekas snece of waht we are raeding. No mttar how mnay tmies you raed tihs oevr and oevr you can sitll mkae snece of it. 
How is taht pssoible?

Answer

As long as the first and last letter of the word is in its correct position, you can position the middle letters in any order and still make sence of it. Our eyes just glance at he first and last letters of a word.

Peter Hogben