A 13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee rattled off "ursprache" to claim the title of America's best speller on prime-time television Thursday night.Katharine Close, an eighth-grader at the H.W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, New Jersey, is the first girl since 1999 to win the national spelling title.
She stepped back from the microphone and put her hands to her mouth upon being declared the winner. (Watch Katharine Close react to her win -- 5:09)
"I'm just in shock," Katharine said. Asked what she'll remember most, she said: "Probably just hearing 'ursprache,' which is a parent language."
She recognized the word as soon as she heard it.
The winner goes home with more than $42,000 in cash and prizes.
Runner-up was Finola Mei Hwa Hackett, a 14-year-old Canadian, a confident speller during two days of competition who stumbled on "weltschmerz," which means sadness over the evils of the world.
Third-place went to Saryn Hooks, a 14-year-old from West Alexander Middle School in Taylorsville, North Carolina, who was disqualified earlier in the evening, then returned to competition after the judges corrected their mistake.
Saryn fumbled on "icteritious," which means of a jaundiced color.
2 comments:
i watched it on tv...2 hours...it was so cool to see those kids spell words that i couldnt even pronounce or knew the meaning of ...they were soo great...now if we could just teach them geography..
We have a programme here called "Mastermind" sometimes they do a kids version, it's amazing what some know ( and what little other don't)
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