Dear MEL Topic Readers,
A historic win. The National Spelling Bee has
not one -- but 8 champions
The National Spelling Bee is a youth competition
in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words. This
contest is intended to help students improve their spelling, increase their
vocabularies, learn concepts and develop proper English usage that will help them
their lives. The annual competition has been held since 1925, except the war years,
and this year, 562 contestants gathered and competed in National Harbor,
Maryland. On May 30, after five rounds of preliminary competitions that
eliminated 34 contestants, 16 finalists advanced to the final rounds. After the
20th round in over three hours, the competition organizer was the
only one that finally lost the competition. Eight finalists answered all the
challenging spellings posed to them and the 92nd competition resulted
in an unprecedented eighth-way tie. They all looked very happy sharing the honorable
title together. Besides the honor and joy, each “Octo-champs” earned 50,000
dollars prize.
Can you imagine what kind of words they spelled
correctly? Omphalopsychite, Geeldikkop, and auftaktigkeit are just a few
examples, none of which was recognized by the ordinary spellchecker.
Enjoy reading the article and learn about these
miraculous champions.
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