So... What is 'Laodicean', Anyway?
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- 5/30/2009 |
- 10:00 am
[caption id="attachment_274" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Photo: Robert Giroux"]
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Thirteen year-old Kavya Shivashankar won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee this week, but it wasn't easy. The Kansas native beat out 292 other big brains, all between the ages of 9 and 15, by correctly spelling laodicean in the 15th round of the championship finals.
This was Kavya's fourth trip to the championship round of the spelling bee, and she had gotten progressively better each time. At age 10 she placed 10th overall; she tied for 8th place the following year; and she tied for 4th place last year, before finally winning it in this, her final year.
You can follow this link to watch Kavya talking about her win on CBS' Early Show. This link will take you to the Scripps National Spelling Bee homepage, where you can test your spelling skills with actual words from this year's semifinals.
As for laodicean? It's an adjective meaning lukewarm or indifferent. But you already knew that, right?
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EB
November 2, 2010 6:04 am
I think that is very exciting that she tried so hard and finally won the national spelling bee! I am not a very good speller, and after reading this I think I should try a little harder with my spelling! When I was in elemernary school, I was always the one girl to be in the spelling bee's, from any english class I was in. I remember studing every night for countless hours and this made spelling or spelling bees's not that fun for me. This has inspired me to maybe enter my school's spelling bee, and what do you know, I could place!:)
