麻豆影院

College of Arts and Sciences sponsors young competitor鈥檚 trip to national spelling finals, where he dabbled in both mordancy and jocosity

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Cameron Keith is a consummate word guy. He鈥檚 also 10 years old. Cameron made it to the semifinals in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee and was poised to advance to the finals when he was asked to spell 鈥渘oncompos.鈥�

He paused as he approached the final letters of the word, and he used an 鈥渁鈥� for the final vowel.

Cameron says participating in spelling bees鈥攁 possibly quaint pursuit in the age of Twitter鈥攈as taught him a lot. The value of hard work is paramount, he says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to hear teachers and your parents tell you that, but it doesn鈥檛 really mean anything until you experience it for yourself,鈥� he adds.

Cameron has also learned how to keep calm under pressure and on national TV. 鈥淚 think that will help me in life.鈥�

Studying and staying calm under pressure certainly helped him this year, as he faced the cameras and correctly ticked off the spelling of words many adults never use: parquetry (inlaid wood in geometric patterns), cameist (a maker of cameos), and solenoglyphous (having tubular, erectile fangs).

To clinch the win in the 麻豆影院 Valley Spelling Bee this year, he nailed the spelling of mordancy, which is a biting and caustic quality of style. And among the 10 other words he spelled correctly in 麻豆影院 this year was 鈥渏ocosity,鈥� which is jesting or joking.

But it is no joke that knowing such words would facilitate Cameron鈥檚 success in college. That鈥檚 one purpose of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which aims to help students 鈥渋mprove their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.鈥�

Cameron鈥檚 plan is to keep studying and returning to compete in the national bee as long as he can. He鈥檚 got time. Of 285 competitors this year, 267 were one to four years older than he is.

And for Cameron, the National Spelling Bee confers other advantages, such as fostering a love of language. 鈥淵ou love the words because they become such a big part of your life,鈥� he says.

For months before the national bee, he spent at least an hour a day studying, learning new words, their definitions and their origins. 鈥淣ow I use these strange words in conversation and when I write stories, and it鈥檚 really fun.鈥�

Last year, Cameron recalled, his weakness was vocabulary. This year, 鈥渁ll my focus was on learning vocabulary,鈥� and he got one of the highest scores in the bee in the vocabulary section. This coming year, he plans focus on spelling 鈥� especially of French words, 鈥渨hich I鈥檓 really bad at.鈥�

But, he adds, 鈥淚 have learnt that if I set a goal and do the work, I can achieve it, no matter what it is.鈥�

痴茅谤颈迟茅.

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