Mental Floss Solution
How It Works
When the transparencies are placed on top of the strips with words on them, certain letters are "blacked out" and others remain visible. Matching up the correct transparencies to the correct strip of paper can be done by matching the lengths of each. When finished, there are four short words that can be created from each of the longer words.
Next, one can notice that all of the longer words have negative connotations, and that in each set of four short words, there is a word with a positive connotation.
These pairs are:
- ABRASIVE - BRAVE
- CALAMITY - CALM
- COLDHEARTNESS - CLEAN
- DISPLEASURE - PURE
- FAILURE - FAIR
- MISINTERPRETATION - NEAT
- PROMISCUOUS - PIOUS
- STUPIDITY - TIDY
- UNCOMFORTABLE - MORAL
- UNEMPLOYABLE - LOYAL
- UNPLEASANTNESS - SANE
- VANDALIZED - VALID
- VINDICTIVE - NICE
- WORRISOME - WISE
There is only one way to fit all of these positive short words into the additional sheet they were given, as the blanks for words in the sheet have overlaps with each other. The overlapping letters spell, in order, the final answer.
Solution
MIRACLE