Post by Charity on Mar 27, 2006 12:09:25 GMT -5
Spelling bee won by homeschooler in 38th round
Spelling bee won in 38th round
Fernando Diaz
Staff writer
(March 26, 2006) — They made it from collywobbles to vindaloo, but by the sixth round of the Monroe County Spelling Bee at the Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday, the 77 contestants had thinned to four.
By the 14th round, Ethan Johnson and Harvest Zhang were alone, vying for the title that each has held, hoping to make another trip to the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
They went letter for letter through 24 rounds, each approaching victory several times.
"This is just brutality," said pronouncer Carol Ritter by the 37th round of the competition, which is sponsored by the Democrat and Chronicle's Newspaper in Education program.
One round later, Ethan, a home-schooled seventh-grader, finally edged past Harvest, an eighth-grader at Twelve Corners Middle School in Brighton, by correctly spelling onager, a wild ass of central Asian origin.
"Toward the end it got tiring," said Harvest, who was last year's winner. Last year he placed 37th in the nation and was hoping for another shot. Ethan, who won the county contest in 2004, said he was pretty confident of onager's spelling. He'd studied the paideia, the list of words used in the bee, and memorized most of the definitions. His sister Tressa, 11, drilled him to keep him sharp.
Ethan, whose favorite word is aebleskive, a Danish pastry, said his goal is to place in the televised rounds of the national competition.
"If he ever wins with that word, I'll make him whatever it is," said his mother, Sandy.
www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060326/NEWS01/603260346/1002/NEWS
Spelling bee won in 38th round
Fernando Diaz
Staff writer
(March 26, 2006) — They made it from collywobbles to vindaloo, but by the sixth round of the Monroe County Spelling Bee at the Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday, the 77 contestants had thinned to four.
By the 14th round, Ethan Johnson and Harvest Zhang were alone, vying for the title that each has held, hoping to make another trip to the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
They went letter for letter through 24 rounds, each approaching victory several times.
"This is just brutality," said pronouncer Carol Ritter by the 37th round of the competition, which is sponsored by the Democrat and Chronicle's Newspaper in Education program.
One round later, Ethan, a home-schooled seventh-grader, finally edged past Harvest, an eighth-grader at Twelve Corners Middle School in Brighton, by correctly spelling onager, a wild ass of central Asian origin.
"Toward the end it got tiring," said Harvest, who was last year's winner. Last year he placed 37th in the nation and was hoping for another shot. Ethan, who won the county contest in 2004, said he was pretty confident of onager's spelling. He'd studied the paideia, the list of words used in the bee, and memorized most of the definitions. His sister Tressa, 11, drilled him to keep him sharp.
Ethan, whose favorite word is aebleskive, a Danish pastry, said his goal is to place in the televised rounds of the national competition.
"If he ever wins with that word, I'll make him whatever it is," said his mother, Sandy.
www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060326/NEWS01/603260346/1002/NEWS