Friday, June 03, 2005
Could you have won the 2005 US National Spelling Bee?
I thought that Spellbound was a fantastic, captivating documentary. I was only vaguely aware of spelling bees until I saw it. That's mostly because spelling, let alone spelling bees, is not a feature of the UK National Curriculum. Despite that I think my spelling is pretty red hot, though the odd error slips into this blog from time to time. I thought the final 18 words from yesterday's National Spelling Bee final were pretty impressively tough. If you'd like a challenge here is a 15k .amr audio file of me reading out the words. My pronounciations veer from shaky to merely incompetent, but you can download the file and replay it at your leisure. To help you, here are the meanings and linguistic origins in order (that's the same help the National spellers get):
1. A highly polished, convex-cut, unfaceted gem. French
2. A ruffled curtain. Greek.
3. A market condition in which purchasers are so few that the actions of any one of them can materially affect price and the costs that competitors must pay. Greek.
4. An instrument for measuring blood pressure in the arteries, especially one consisting of a pressure gauge and a rubber cuff that wraps around the upper arm and inflates to constrict the arteries. Greek.
5. An aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served without cooking. Italian.
6. Not in Chambers, Shorter Oxford, or any online dictionary. It is a French Canadian town though. How are you supposed to revise for this crazy test?
7. A French fireman.
8. Cylindrical but usually slightly tapering at both ends, circular in cross section, and smooth-surfaced. Latin.
9. Three spiked. Greek.
10. Any of numerous evergreen shrubs or small trees of the genus xxxxxxxx, having palmately compound leaves and unisexual flowers that are grouped in umbels. It is widely grown indoors as a foliage plant. Also called umbrella tree. Latin.
11. Duckbilled. Greek.
12. The sum payable for the convenience of exchanging money. Latin.
13. A Piedmontese stuffed pasta.
14. A confession of sin. Latin.
15. An instrument for recording thunder and lightning. Latin.
16. The condition that results from excessive loss of water from a living organism. Latin.
17. Belonging to the present day. Latin.
18. An embellishing note, usually one step above or below the note it precedes and indicated by a small note or special sign. Mixed Latin and Greek origin.
This is the actual list of the correct spellings. I hope you'll agree that 13 year old Anurag Kashyap deserves his win. He definitely had me beat.
I thought that Spellbound was a fantastic, captivating documentary. I was only vaguely aware of spelling bees until I saw it. That's mostly because spelling, let alone spelling bees, is not a feature of the UK National Curriculum. Despite that I think my spelling is pretty red hot, though the odd error slips into this blog from time to time. I thought the final 18 words from yesterday's National Spelling Bee final were pretty impressively tough. If you'd like a challenge here is a 15k .amr audio file of me reading out the words. My pronounciations veer from shaky to merely incompetent, but you can download the file and replay it at your leisure. To help you, here are the meanings and linguistic origins in order (that's the same help the National spellers get):
1. A highly polished, convex-cut, unfaceted gem. French
2. A ruffled curtain. Greek.
3. A market condition in which purchasers are so few that the actions of any one of them can materially affect price and the costs that competitors must pay. Greek.
4. An instrument for measuring blood pressure in the arteries, especially one consisting of a pressure gauge and a rubber cuff that wraps around the upper arm and inflates to constrict the arteries. Greek.
5. An aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served without cooking. Italian.
6. Not in Chambers, Shorter Oxford, or any online dictionary. It is a French Canadian town though. How are you supposed to revise for this crazy test?
7. A French fireman.
8. Cylindrical but usually slightly tapering at both ends, circular in cross section, and smooth-surfaced. Latin.
9. Three spiked. Greek.
10. Any of numerous evergreen shrubs or small trees of the genus xxxxxxxx, having palmately compound leaves and unisexual flowers that are grouped in umbels. It is widely grown indoors as a foliage plant. Also called umbrella tree. Latin.
11. Duckbilled. Greek.
12. The sum payable for the convenience of exchanging money. Latin.
13. A Piedmontese stuffed pasta.
14. A confession of sin. Latin.
15. An instrument for recording thunder and lightning. Latin.
16. The condition that results from excessive loss of water from a living organism. Latin.
17. Belonging to the present day. Latin.
18. An embellishing note, usually one step above or below the note it precedes and indicated by a small note or special sign. Mixed Latin and Greek origin.
This is the actual list of the correct spellings. I hope you'll agree that 13 year old Anurag Kashyap deserves his win. He definitely had me beat.
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