L4

Question 1

勹

Answer 1

BOUND UP // wrapping up tight whatever’s within, chain and hook

Question 2

丷

Answer 2

HORNS // bulls, rams, reindeer, all include. Found at top and must be supported underneath

Question 3

只

Answer 3

ONLY // sideshow at a fair, where the animal is just a giant mouth with big teeth on legs

Question 4

贝

Answer 4

SHELLFISH // top section is an eye, vertical like in the two towers film, eye on legs makes a bizarre walking oyster

Question 5

贴

Answer 5

PASTE // an oyster on legs, arriving in town with powers of divination, has to paste up his poster, having lugged in his bucket of paste

Question 6

贞

Answer 6

CHASTE // a moral clam runs around town trying to find a man who hasn’t got crabs, using its wand to detect the liars

Question 7

员

Answer 7

EMPLOYEE // “keep your mouth shut and get to work, said the boss, affixing a clam to the employees mouth

Question 8

儿

Answer 8

YOUNGSTER // legs growing out until one protrudes awkwardly from handmedown trousers.

Question 9

几

Answer 9

HOW MANY // bob Dylan sang Blowin In The Wind “ how many roads…” (also means wind and table)

Question 10

见

Answer 10

SEE // top is two towers style eye, legs flailing from an xxx scene…!

Question 11

元

Answer 11

BEGINNING // “in the beginning” there were two humans… 2 + legs

Question 12

页

Answer 12

PAGE // one at top, so just single page book. Oyster shell, open it and the first ‘page’ contains pearls of wisdom

Question 13

顽

Answer 13

STUBBORN // at the beginning (page 1) there were also Cain and Abel, who only read the first page of the instructions and stuck to them. Blockheads who ended up at loggerheads.

Question 14

凡

Answer 14

ORDINARY // a drop in the wind, like an emotionless commuter crossing a bridge in ordinary black suit

Question 15

肌

Answer 15

MUSCLE // flesh rests on the table in an arm wrestle

Question 16

负

Answer 16

DEFEATED // defeated in sea battle, the clam is bound up in seaweed

Question 17

万

Answer 17

TEN THOUSAND // Chinese count in blocks of ten thousand, 1,0000 so the comma is the thing that binds them up

Question 18

勻

Answer 18

UNIFORM // two unruly students are bound together in one uniform, so they’ll be unable to break from the class uniformity

Question 19

句

Answer 19

SENTENCE // many words are bound together in one’s mouth to form a sentence

Question 20

旬

Answer 20

DECAMERON // classical phrase for a block of ten days. Represents people bound together for ten days, for eg on a journey.

Question 21

勺

Answer 21

LADLE // scoop up the drops and bind them together

Question 22

的

Answer 22

BULLS EYE // chuck a ladle at a white thing, a pristine white bird for eg, and bulls eye it falls off perch

Question 23

首

Answer 23

HEADS // horns and a nose, evocative of towering game heads on a rich persons wall, a head of state perhaps?