小小超级拼字者

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The word autochthonous (土生的) means something formed in the place it is found. But to David Tidmarsh, it means cheers and prizes as the 77th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee(拼单词比赛) champ1!

Pausing between letters to catch his breath, David worked his way slowly through the tough2 word. When he finished, the crowd went wild! He was the champion! Beating out 264 other contestants3, he had earned his spot at the top of this year' s spelling list.

Not bad for a young man who finished 16th in the contest last year. "I had a really good time last year, so it made me want to do better," he said. That meant expanding his study list. "Last year I just studied words that had been used before. This year I studied those words, and I went to the dictionary and made my own list," he said. All told, he studied about 10,000 words.

When he's not winning spelling contests, David likes science. One recent project involved Gummi Bears(古米熊软糖) and his kitchen floor. "We were trying to test the five-second rule,"he said. "People say that if you drop a piece of food on the ground, then you can eat it if it's down there for less than five seconds."

His hypothesis（假设）? "We thought it would be unsafe to do that," he said. Sure enough, there was plenty of bacteria4 to mea- sure. "We found out that for the Gummi Bears, the number of bacteria increases the longer they were on the kitchen tile5," he said.

David also enjoys sports, playing baseball and soccer. He also swims, and recently started golf lessons. "I think you have to have a sort of balance between having fun and working on things like spelling bees. It is not just about the spelling. There are so many other things you can do."

David's new position as a role model begins at home. His two younger siblings6, sister Clare, four, and brother Kevin, ten, both like to try spelling. Clare makes a game of it. "She goes, 'Let's have a spelling bee,' but she does't know how to spell actual words." Kevin is interested in competing in the national spelling contest next year. That suits David, who will be too old to enter next year. "I'm hoping he does, too, because I'd like to go back," he said.

注释：

1．champ n. 冠军，champion的缩略

2．tough adj．困难的，棘手的

3．contestant n.参加竞赛者， 竞争者

4．bacteria n．（bacterium的复数）细菌

5.tile n. 瓷砖

6．sibling n. 兄弟或姊妹

“土生土长”一词意为某物成长于其被发现的地方。但是对于大卫・蒂德马什而言，它意味着荣获第77届斯克利普斯全国拼字年赛冠军时得到的欢呼和奖励!

在字母拼写中暂停一下，喘口气，大卫慢慢地努力攻克着难字。当他完成拼写后，观众一阵欢呼。他是冠军！击败了其余264名参赛者，他荣登本年度拼字排行榜榜首。

对于一个去年得了第16名的年轻人而言，这个成绩真是不错。他说：“去年参加比赛我感到很愉快，因此，这使我想表现得更好。”那意味着扩大自己的学习范围。他说：“去年我只学习了过去使用过的单词。今年我不仅学习那些单词，还查字典列出了我自己的词汇表。”他总共学会了大约1万个单词。

当大卫不在为赢得拼字比赛学习时，他喜欢科学。最近的一个项目是用古米熊软糖和他家厨房的地板做测试。“我们在尝试测验 5秒钟规则，”他说。“人们说如果一块食物掉在地上不到5秒钟，你还可以吃。”

他的假说是什么呢? “我们认为那样做是不安全的，”他说。毫无疑问，能检测出那儿有大量的细菌。大卫说：“我们发现拿古米熊软糖来说，它们在厨房的瓷砖上放的时间越长，上面的细菌就越多。”

大卫还喜欢运动，他打棒球，踢足球，还游泳，最近又开始学习打高尔夫球。“我认为你必须在玩乐与做类似拼字竞赛的工作中获取一种平衡。生活中不光有拼字比赛，还有许多其他事情你可以做。”

大卫在家中成了榜样，他的两个弟弟妹妹，4岁的妹妹克莱尔和10岁的弟弟凯文都喜欢拼字。克莱尔把拼字当作一种游戏。“她会说：‘我们来比赛拼字，’但她并不知道如何拼写实际的单词。”凯文有兴趣参加明年的全国拼字竞赛。这正合大卫的心意，因为明年他就超龄了，不能再参加比赛。“我也希望他参赛，因为我想回到这个竞赛中，”他说。