NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- A written vocabulary test eliminated Arkansas' spelling champion Jackson Parker from continuing on to the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee today.
Jackson, 14, an eighth-grader at Paragould Junior High School, correctly spelled both words posed to him during preliminary rounds Wednesday, but he did not score high enough on the written vocabulary and spelling portion to advance. Only 50 of the 285 participants moved on to the semifinal round.
Opening words in National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee uses only the spellings found in Webster's Third International Version and its 2002 addendum. The following words were among those used during the preliminary oral rounds of the bee in National Harbor, Md., on Wednesday. Arkansas' contestant Jackson Parker, 14, of Paragould spelled his two words, sputnik and longanimous, correctly.
Words in the firstoral round:
Sputnik: A manmade object or vehicle intended to orbit the Earth, the moon or another celestial body and usually instrumented for the transmission of space data.
Salmonella: A kind of bacteria that is sometimes in food and that makes people sick.
Marzipan: A sweet food that is made with almonds, sugar, and eggs and that is often made into various shapes or used to cover cakes.
Kabuki: A traditional form of Japanese entertainment with singing and dancing.
Libretto: The words of an opera or musical.
Isinglass: A semitransparent whitish very pure gelatin prepared from the air bladders of fishes (as sturgeons) and used especially as a clarifying agent and in jellies and glue.
Words from thesecond oral round:
Longanimous: Able to bear injuries patiently; forbearing.
Ahimsa: The Hindu and Buddhist doctrine of refraining from harming any living being.
Abyssolith: A deep-seated igneous body lacking a floor of crystalline rock.
Persifleur: A person who indulges in persiflage; one given to frivolous banter especially about matters usually given serious consideration.
Gesamtkunstwerk: An art work produced by a synthesis of various art forms (such as music and drama).
Hyperpyrexia: An exceptionally high fever.
The spelling bee is held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center about 10 miles south of downtown Washington.
Jackson said afterward that he's taking "humility" away from the experience, saying he expected to make the semifinals.
The championship bouts are to be broadcast on ESPN today at 7 p.m. The champion will receive $35,000, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, and several dictionary and encyclopedia collections.
All participants received a Microsoft Surface 3 tablet, a one-year subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica online, an unabridged copy of Webster's Third International Dictionary and a 2015 U.S. mint proof set.
With 285 spellers competing for the title, the two oral preliminary rounds broadcast Wednesday on ESPN3 were split into sections, with half of the spellers participating in each round.
Some students asked Jacques Bailly -- the 1980 national champion and this year's official spelling bee pronouncer -- for their words' definitions, etymologies and origins. Some asked for the words to be used in sentences; others wanted to know if the words were nouns, adjectives or verbs. Some traced the words in the air or on their hands as they spoke the letters.
Others, like Jackson, simply spelled the words aloud after asking for the definitions. His first word was sputnik, a series of manmade satellites put into orbit by the former Soviet Union. The second was longanimous, meaning able to bear injuries patiently and with forbearance.
Jackson said the list of words in the first oral round was the same as what he had studied for the county and state spelling bees. Words in the second round were pulled from a 600-word list given to participants a few weeks ago, he said.
"They have an online study tool where Dr. Bailly's recorded voice would call it out, and then you would type it into the computer," Jackson said.
The written section has tripped up Arkansas finalists for the past few years. To practice for the vocabulary section, Jackson took quizzes online and studied from books recommended by Arkansas' 2011 champion Jacob Elser, then of Fayetteville. Jackson scored 19 and needed 29 points to advance.
Jackson is the son of Melanie Parker of Paragould and Jonathan Lane of Little Rock.
Jackson said he studied two to four hours a day to prepare, often with the help of his grandmother, Paulette Parker, 70, a retired junior high math teacher.
"I lower the hammer pretty hard on Jack," she said with a laugh.
She got Jackson hooked on spelling.
"My grandma took me to the Greene County spelling bee when I was in third grade, and I said 'wow, that looks pretty cool. I want to do that,'" Jackson said.
After a self-described "embarrassing" loss at the school bee in fifth grade, Jackson earned third place at the county bee in sixth grade and finished in second place in the state bee last year.
"I was kind of a newcomer so I didn't expect to make it that far," Jackson said. "This year, I'm just like 'OK, it's my last year, I'm taking the state bee.' So I did my best, prayed to God a bunch -- he helped me -- and now I'm here."
Jackson was sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which also sponsors the state spelling bee.
Contestants who spelled their words correctly remained on the stage. As the hours dragged on, many of the spellers fidgeted and stretched.
Jackson, the seventh of 142 people in his oral round, said his biggest worry was sitting up straight for the television cameras.
"It wasn't much different than the state bee. I was high-strung that maybe I'd sneeze or something onstage. That would be embarrassing," Jackson said. "So for that whole time, I was just sitting as straight as I can waiting for it to be over."
Justin Tyler Carroll is the only Arkansas contestant to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking the prize back to Wynne in 1995.
When he's not spelling, Jackson plays baseball, competes on his school's Quiz Bowl team and plays the flute. He plans to be a surgeon, possibly in the military. He also said he intends to be Arkansas governor and then president of the United States, just like his favorite Democrat.
"I'm going to be the next Bill Clinton, even better," he said.
Jackson said the support from the Paragould community amazed him. There's even a billboard with his face on it in Greene County.
"We had a huge party at school my last day Friday, a big assembly and everybody held up signs. There was a going-away party at my church, and lots of members donated money to help pay for the trip," he said. "So I've had lots of plaudits."
That means praise.
Metro on 05/28/2015