Post by Charity on Mar 18, 2005 22:10:38 GMT -5
By Shannon Sollinger
03/15/2005
Cari Peacock is the best speller in the county. Again. For the third time in four years.
Cari, a home-schooler from Bluemont, won the spelling bee in 2002 as a fifth-grader, in 2003 as a sixth-grader, and Thursday night at Heritage High School as an eighth-grader.
She was not as confident, going into this year's contest, she said, because she hasn't studied as intensely. Her interests now include the Loudoun 4H Llama Lovers, horseback riding, other courses, reading and the FIRST Robotics club.
Thursday night started with 87 contestants, fifth- through eighth-graders from all the county's public schools, from its private schools and from its home schools.
It took only four rounds to narrow the field to two eighth-grade girls – Cari, and Kate Ferraren, of St. Theresa School in Ashburn.
The girls barely hesitated, ripping through words like "trochanter," "suzerain," "hylophagous" and "blepharal" for another 10 rounds.
Parents and judges started to peek at their watches. Would either Kate or Cari ever miss a letter?
But in the 13th round, Cari started off with "chiliad" (a group of a thousand). Not a problem.
Kate had trouble understanding the pronunciation of "monoxenous" (requiring only one host in a life cycle). She swapped in a "y" for the first "o" and Cari had a chance at the victory.
But not yet. Her word was "kaolinize" (to convert into kaolin, a fine white clay used in making porcelain). She didn't have a clue.
Back to one on one. Cari enunciated "acantholysis" (the loss of cohesion between epidermal or adnexal keratinocytes) without pausing between letters.
Kate came to grief with "mignonette" (an annual plant bearing terminal spikes of small greenish, whitish or reddish flowers). She tried getting definitions, origins, uses, roots. To no avail. She left the "g" out.
Once more, Cari had only to spell one more word. It was "pterography."
She confessed later she didn't know the word. But she studies the roots of words. The definition of "pterography" – study or collection of feathers – gave it away.
The Greek root "ptero-" means "feather" or "wing." Think of "pterodactyl."
Cari will represent Loudoun County in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 31-June 2. She's been there twice before, and she'll be studying a lot of roots.
www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=14154196
03/15/2005
Cari Peacock is the best speller in the county. Again. For the third time in four years.
Cari, a home-schooler from Bluemont, won the spelling bee in 2002 as a fifth-grader, in 2003 as a sixth-grader, and Thursday night at Heritage High School as an eighth-grader.
She was not as confident, going into this year's contest, she said, because she hasn't studied as intensely. Her interests now include the Loudoun 4H Llama Lovers, horseback riding, other courses, reading and the FIRST Robotics club.
Thursday night started with 87 contestants, fifth- through eighth-graders from all the county's public schools, from its private schools and from its home schools.
It took only four rounds to narrow the field to two eighth-grade girls – Cari, and Kate Ferraren, of St. Theresa School in Ashburn.
The girls barely hesitated, ripping through words like "trochanter," "suzerain," "hylophagous" and "blepharal" for another 10 rounds.
Parents and judges started to peek at their watches. Would either Kate or Cari ever miss a letter?
But in the 13th round, Cari started off with "chiliad" (a group of a thousand). Not a problem.
Kate had trouble understanding the pronunciation of "monoxenous" (requiring only one host in a life cycle). She swapped in a "y" for the first "o" and Cari had a chance at the victory.
But not yet. Her word was "kaolinize" (to convert into kaolin, a fine white clay used in making porcelain). She didn't have a clue.
Back to one on one. Cari enunciated "acantholysis" (the loss of cohesion between epidermal or adnexal keratinocytes) without pausing between letters.
Kate came to grief with "mignonette" (an annual plant bearing terminal spikes of small greenish, whitish or reddish flowers). She tried getting definitions, origins, uses, roots. To no avail. She left the "g" out.
Once more, Cari had only to spell one more word. It was "pterography."
She confessed later she didn't know the word. But she studies the roots of words. The definition of "pterography" – study or collection of feathers – gave it away.
The Greek root "ptero-" means "feather" or "wing." Think of "pterodactyl."
Cari will represent Loudoun County in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 31-June 2. She's been there twice before, and she'll be studying a lot of roots.
www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=14154196