Columnist: The winner of this year’s national spelling bee won by corr

Question

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.

riskietech · Accepted Answer

A) The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
 Incorrect. Cannot be inferred.

B) Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
 Incorrect: Although foreign words are difficult, its difficulty level is not compared with that of anglicized words.

C) Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
 Incorrect: Spelling contestant winners are determined by spelling, not by winners' facility with all aspects of language.

D) To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
 Correct: The winner spelled the German word (foreign word). According to columnist,"spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests" So columnist wants best spellers to spell English word instead of having knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics. Thus columnist views that best speller (winner in this case) who spelled a foreign word had a sound knowledge of language and its pronunciation. And, since he was the winner and no one else was, we can definitely conclude that "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.
 Incorrect. There is no such comparison made in the argument.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

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.

warriorguy · Answer

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.

The essence of this argument lies in its first line wherein the author/columnist is stating that the spelling bee winner won by spelling the spoken word correctly. So he must have deduced the spelling from the pronunciation of the judge. Hence D fits the bill.

Choice A - not necessary - we can't deduce the information from the argument. 
Choice B - again it mentions richness in the native language and blah blah but doesn't draw a comparison
Choice C - cant deduce that
Choice E - cant deduce that

Skywalker18 · Answer

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.

Type - Inference

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. - This may be true but is not must be true
 b)Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell. - Out of scope
 c)Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language. - it's nearly impossible for a statement containing "should" to be required . Also this goes against what the argument says
 d)To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation. - the mention of "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics" in the passage; this implies that correct spelling of foreign (non-english) words requires such knowledge.
 e)The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages. - Out of scope

Answer D

BlackHawk2478 · Answer

Ursprache does not mean fame in English! Ursprache means root of languages.

Posted from my mobile device

aritrar4 · Answer

Is the correct answer here not more an assumption than an inference? I could not see how any of the answers were inferences instead of assumptions.

Posted from my mobile device

sanjayparihar16 · Answer

This is clearly an assumption question and question stem states to find the inference answer choice.

POORLY FRAMED question.

Axwe7 · Answer

KarishmaB 
 Bunuel

I do think this is an assumption question. But a simply counterexample to D) would be that the spelling contestant guesses the spelling of the word and gets it correct. This obviously points how D) is flawed since it uses the word "must".

guddo · Answer

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?

The columnist argues that spelling bees should test spelling English words, not words that require knowledge of foreign-language sound patterns.  The implied point  is that spelling un-anglicized foreign words may require  foreign-language or phonetic knowledge , not just ordinary English spelling ability.

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

This cannot be inferred. The passage says only that the winner spelled one foreign word correctly.

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

This is too strong. The columnist suggests foreign words test something different, not that they are harder for every contestant.

(C) Spelling contest winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.

This goes against the argument. The columnist wants contests limited to English spelling, not broader language knowledge.

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

This is correct. The columnist says such words involve knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, so the argument implies that spelling them requires more than ordinary English spelling knowledge.

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

This is not discussed. The passage says English has borrowed words, but it does not compare English with other languages.

Answer: (D)

KarishmaB · Answer

I would be ok with option (D) if I had to answer. We are looking for an inference from the argument. 
The argument states that the winner correctly spelled a foreign word and the author has a problem with giving foreign words because they test  knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics. So whether it is possible to spell a foreign word without knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics in real life, we don't care. The argument suggests that knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics is required to spell foreign words. 
Though Inference/Conclusion questions usually give you fact-sets, not arguments so the question is questionable.

Columnist: The winner of this year’s national spelling bee won by corr

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