Torn Letter
Translation details
Model:mistral-medium-2604.Translated text
Section titled “Translated text”The task is to reconstruct the content of a letter from torn scraps of paper.
The patrol leader writes an order on a quarter sheet of paper, tears it into small pieces, and scatters them in the wind. Then, he returns to the patrol and instructs them, for example, to go 100 paces north, where on the slope of a hill, the paper scraps can be seen. These must be collected and the message read from them. It is difficult to find all the torn pieces, so the goal is to deduce the content from the fragments. If the patrol carries out the given order, it provides proof that it has completed the task. The exercise can be made more difficult by specifying a time limit within which the order must be executed.
Several patrols can compete in this exercise. In that case, as many quarter sheets of paper as there are patrols are taken. The same order is written on each, ensuring that the number of lines is the same, each line ends with the same syllable, and the content occupies the same area of paper. Then, each is torn into the same number of pieces. Each quarter sheet is scattered in a different location, at an equal distance from the camps, and each patrol is directed to the place where they must search.
At a given signal, the patrols scatter. Some carefully collect the scraps, others assemble them and try to read the content. Then, the written order is carried out. The patrol that executes it first wins. The order might read, for example: “The patrol must line up in a row along the right bank of the stream, place their equipment behind them while holding their sticks, and the patrol leader must come to me and announce that the patrol is ready.”
Source scan: Polona / National Library of Poland, marked “Public domain”. View scan — PDF pages 121–122.
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”- Type: game
- Traits: Not stated in the source
- Source: Zygmunt Wyrobek, Harcerz w polu: zabawy i gry terenowe (1946)
- Printed pages: 115–116 / PDF 121–122
- Digital edition: Digital edition · Source record
- Open the edition at the relevant page: p. 115
- Read the source text: hwp-049