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今天是儿童节，祝小伙伴们童心永驻、快快乐乐!
今天的文章也与儿童有关，是最近正在举行、孩子们踊跃参加的一年一度spelling bee拼字大赛。
This Is The 92nd Year For The Scripps National Spelling Bee
May 29, 2019
NOEL KING, HOST: More than 500 kids are showing off their mastery of spelling this week at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Karthik Nemmani from McKinney, Texas, won last year. Here he is.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "92ND SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE")
KARTHIK NEMMANI: Koinonia - K, O, I, N, O, N, I, A - koinonia.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: That is correct.(APPLAUSE)
KING: There is always plenty of drama, and this year's opening round on Tuesday was no exception. Thirteen-year-old Max Greenspan was spelling out mot juste, a French phrase that means the exact right word, and he paused a few seconds to figure out whether to add a final E when a judge rang the bell to declare that Max had spelled the word wrong. But after a review, Max was reinstated, since there is no rule against pausing in the middle of a word. Shalini Shankar's most recent book is about the latest generation of spellers.
SHALINI SHANKAR: I've seen the competition get much more intense, and it's also grown in terms of broader interest and the number of kids who come to D.C.
KING: Your book focuses on Generation Z spellers, so kids who were born '96, '97 or after. How does their work ethic differ from kids who were born earlier?
SHANKAR: Well, any kid who makes it to the National Spelling Bee is going to have worked hard to get there. But what spellers need to do now to become competitive and advance in the contest is so much more intense. So they spend hours before school, after school, on weekends really honing their craft to become elite spellers.
KING: And is this beneficial to kids? Because it sounds a little sad, I mean, the idea that a kid could be outside playing and instead is inside with a dictionary.
SHANKAR: I think it's a version of childhood that is becoming more and more common today - kids who are specializing and becoming experts in really esoteric things and becoming masters at them very young. And so I think these kids enjoy it to the degree that one can enjoy being so intensively focused on something.
KING: One thing about your book that I like was you point out how media-savvy some of these kids are. I mean, you think of them as - and I say this as a former speller - you think of them as nerds, but they are really comfortable around TV cameras. They do interviews. They're on ESPN. It's extraordinary.
SHANKAR: It is. They are very comfortable with the camera, or at least they become comfortable over time. They also love the exposure. They work so hard, and I think when they finally get that moment to shine, they want that, and they take it.
KING: We talk a lot in this country about whether or not we're putting kids under too much pressure to compete. Let me ask you two questions. In your book, you point out that a lot of the kids tell you it's not so much that they're competing with each other, they're competing with the dictionary. Do you believe them?
SHANKAR: I do believe them.
KING: Yeah?
SHANKAR: In part because there's such an element of luck involved in which word they get and whether they know it. So I'll hear from some kids that they didn't know another kid's word in the same round, but they knew theirs, and so they advance. So if they learn the dictionary to the degree that they need to, they can win.
KING: And you point out that some of these relationships between kids and families go on for years after the spelling bee.
SHANKAR: They do, and often there are younger siblings who start to get involved, and there are just family and community members who get drawn to it because one speller has done really well. So that legacy continues.
KING: Legacy spellers, I love that idea.
SHANKAR: Yeah.
KING: Shalini Shankar's latest book is "Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z's New Path To Success."Shalini, thanks so much.
SHANKAR: Thank you so much.
知识点笔记：
1.(090510中介绍过)spelling bee: a competition in which the winner is the person who spells the most words correctly拼字比赛，其基本规则是，当主持人念出一个词，参赛者就要开始把字母口述拼出来。参赛者可以重新再拼，但已念出的字母或字母顺序不可再更改。只要参赛者拼错了一个词，他就会立刻被淘汰。比赛以回合制举行，直至淘汰到最后一位参赛者为止。（有点类似于我们的汉字听写大会，但是这是口述拼出，汉字听写大会是写出来。）
Why it's called "spelling bee"?（为何拼字比赛的英文名会叫作“拼字蜜蜂”?） 原因至今尚不清楚。其中一个可信的说法，是历史上在美国这一类为某种目的而聚集的社会活动多会被冠以“蜜蜂”称号，衍生为“群作聚会“、”蜂拥而上的行动“之意，与汉语的”集体劳动“相若，如19世纪初农民集体剥玉米壳的活动就被称作”去壳蜜蜂”（husking bee）。
注：这种许多人参加的竞赛、大会常被命名为...bee，前几天我看到有一个National Geographic Bee，也是全国中小学生的地理知识竞赛。
2.Generation Z spellers,后一句解释了... kids who were born '96, '97 or after.Z世代，美国及欧洲的流行用语，意指在1990年代中叶至2000年后出生的人。一般来说，他们主要是X世代的小孩，但也有较老的Y世代或是较年轻的婴儿潮世代的小孩。
那么这些generation是怎么命名的？从二战后一代一代命名下来的：
- baby boomer: 婴儿潮，二战后出生的一代1945-1965年。战争结束、回归和平，人口出现大量增长。
- GenerationX：X世代，婴儿潮一代的孩子，1960年代末期至1970年代，70后。
- GenerationY(Millennials)：Y世代, 8090后，又称千禧一代（因为最早的一批80后在2000年成年）
- GenerationZ：Z世代, 00后
3....honing their craft...
hone: 磨（刀），引申为磨炼；开发；
e.g.1.Leading companies spend time and money on honing the skills of senior managers...
2.His body is honed and kept in trim with constant exercise.
4.media-savvy:懂得如何在媒体上展现自己、不怯场，后面对此有介绍"...they are really comfortable around TV cameras"
回忆复习(190530)savvy:有见识的;具有实际知识的;有经验的
tech-savvy：懂技术的
5.ESPN：娱乐体育节目电视网（Entertainment Sports Programming Network）
6....there's such an element of luck involved in which word they get and whether they know it.“...有运气的成分”我觉得这个表达很好。
7.legacy：遗留物；遗产、遗赠；也经常表示要继承的无形的东西
e.g.1....a programme to overcome the legacy of inequality and injustice created by Apartheid...
2.The old system has left a mixed legacy.
3.That's the legacy we celebrate on Labor Day.
4.This is your legacy, Class of 2017.
回忆复习(190516有关母亲节的一期访谈)You will not break down. You will walk in there and be the legacy that your mother left you.
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