BANGALORE:
The spell bee competition was cakewalk for Bangalore’s students. With a whopping 76 out of 80 in the preliminary written test and 15 of 16 in the final rapid-fire, the topper, along with other finalists, gave a jaw-dropping performance at theHDFC Life Spell Bee 2011, powered by The Times ofIndia in association with Everon Education Ltd and Flipkart.com. It was held at Dr B R Ambedkar Bhavan on Sunday.
Lavanya Krishna, a class eight student at Presidency School, R T Nagar, won the city finals that was attended by 400 students from 60 schools. She will now head to Mumbai for the grand finale.
The organizers didn’t hide their admiration for the participants. “The standard that we see here far exceeds the ones I’ve witnessed in many other cities where we have conducted spell bees. In the written test, which was taken by 400 students, we had to make the cut-off 66 as against the minimum score of 50. The level of competition was the best here. The only drawback we see is in the pronunciation of letter `h’ among students,” they said.
In the four final rounds, students were asked to spell words based on the picture they saw and the words the conductor called out. They had to correct misspelt words that appeared in poems. This ranged from Wordsworth’s `Daffodils’ to Elizabeth Browning’s `How do I love thee’. In the rapid-fire round, 16 words were called out in a minute’s time to be spelt. Pugnacious, malevolence, intelligentsia __ there was no stopping these children.
An avid reader, Lavanya, has taken part in spell bee competitions held in the past two years. This year, she participated despite having chemistry exams at her heels. “The only secret is my reading habit. During dinner time, I have small drills with father. I am not too good with those French words,” she said. It’s not just words that fascinate her, there’s cooking too. “She bought a recipe book with a voucher she had. When I want a day off she pitches in,” said her mother Vidya Krishna.
The winner of the grand finale will be sent by The Times of India to the USAto experience theScripps National Spelling Bee.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / TNN / Mar 28th, 2011