ShareThisBy TRISH CHOATE
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Scripps National Spelling Bee questions and answers
Q: When is the bee on television?
A: ESPN will broadcast semifinals live 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, and ABC's live broadcast of finals will be 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT Thursday, according to www.spellingbee.com.
Q: Why is it called the "Scripps National Spelling Bee" when kids from all over the world, including Jamaica, Canada and New Zealand can compete?
A: Children from outside of the United States have competed in the bee since the 1970s, bee director Paige Kimble said. Organizers see no need to change the name, and international contestants haven't raised any concerns about it.
Q: Why can't champions come back to defend their title?
A: No winner has ever challenged that rule, Kimble said, adding that she doesn't think a champ has ever even expressed a desire to enter again. Another issue is that most winners are eighth-graders, and ninth-graders are ineligible to compete.
Last year's winner, Kerry Close of Spring Lake, N.J., said that even if she could, she wouldn't ever want to go back again. It's a tough competition that calls for a lot of luck.
"I don't think I'd want to go back and test fate again," 14-year-old Close said. Q: What happened to some past winners?
A: 2006 _ Close is a freshman at High Technology High School and aspires to be a journalist.
1996 _ Wendy Guey is an investment relations associate in New York City.
1983 _ Blake Giddens is an engineer for an Alexandria, Va., firm.
1979 _ Katie Kerwin is a metro reporter for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
1960 _ Henry Feldman is a medical statistician in Boston.
1951 _ Irving Belz became a psychiatrist in Conroe, Texas.
1941 _ The late Louis Edward Sissman was an award-winning poet.
1925 _ Frank Neuhauser is a retired patent attorney living in Silver Spring, Md.
Source: Scripps bee
Bee statistics from www.spellingbee.com
A: This year's contestants are made up of 139 boys and 147 girls.
Their grade levels include two in fourth, 23 in fifth, 36 in sixth, 88 in seventh and 137 in eighth.
2 Ages range from 10 to 15 years old:
11 are 10 years old.
28 are 11 years old
66 are 12 years old
105 are 13 years old
75 are 14 years old
One is 15 years old.
More than two-thirds are public school students.
One is a virtual student.
36 are home-schooled.
19 spellers have a family member who's competed in national finals.
Lyonna Alensca Leota, representing the Samoa News of Pago Pago, American Samoa, is an identical twin.
One speller, Samir Patel, representing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of Texas, is a five-year repeater.
Three spellers are four-year repeaters.
11 are three-year repeaters.
41 are two-year repeaters.
