Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache, which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?

A The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.

B Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.

C Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.

D To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.

E The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

D for me.
The columnist suggests that the contest should not be based on "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics". To me, this means that the contestants is familiar with the language to spell foreign words.

I choose D.

D To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation. - "because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests"

B Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell. - it is difficult to prove two undermine phrases.
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I am torn between C & E. On G-day the choice would be C over E.

BTW, this CR passage couldn't have come at a better time. It is such a great coincidence that Sondenso had to share it on the day of the Spelling Bee finals. And what's up with these Indian descent children! Year after year, they pretty much have dominated this competition. Something in the genes? In any case, thanks for the good work Sondenso, as always.

spell foreign words ----> Not winner ( from first 2 lines. Author says someone won, but author is not happy)
spell english words -----> Winner (from last 2 lines)
knowledge of linguists + phonetics -----> Not winner. (from last 2 lines)

so , spell foreign words = knowledge of linguists + phonetics.
D for me.

OA is D. I have the full OE if people are interested.

OE :


This argument concludes that spelling bees should only use anglicized words in the dictionary because spelling should be the only criterion that determines the winner. To make this point, the author must believe that correctly spelling spoken foreign words requires knowledge of the phonetics of the particular language.

(A) This choice does not have to follow from the argument, as a correct inference must. The winner did not have to know how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary, only the ones that she was given.

(B) This choice does not have to follow from the argument, as a correct inference must. All contestants don’t have to find foreign words more difficult. For instance, the child of German parents might find it easy to spell Ursprache.

(C) This choice does not have to follow from the argument, as a correct inference must. In fact, it must follow from the argument that contestants should be judged only by their spelling ability, not by their facility with "all aspects of language."

(D) CORRECT. The author wants to exclude foreign words because spelling bees should be based only on spelling ability, not on "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics." Thus, the author must believe that spelling foreign words correctly when they are spoken requires knowledge of the phonetics of the foreign language in question.

(E) This choice does not have to follow from the argument, as a correct inference must. While this might be factually true, no where in the argument is there any comparison between the number of words in English and that of any other language.