CAN YOU SPELL, WINNER? 8TH-GRADER TRAVELS TO CHAMPIONSHIP BEE.Byline: Katie Cooper Staff Writer GLENDALE - It may be nail-biting time for spelling-bee champs around the country, but Mariam Firunts is as cool as a cucumber cucumber, fruit of Cucumis sativus, a species of gourd whose many varieties are descended from a plant native to Asia and Africa. Cucumber is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Violales, family Curcurbitaceae. . After all, said Firunts, who will represent the Daily News in this week's national spelling championship in Washington, D.C., she has been down this road before and is not put off by a little mental test of wills. And, the Toll Middle School eighth-grader said, she'd rather talk about something she's really concerned about, like the perils of a Bush presidency or the oppression of women in Afghanistan. ``I mean, there are big things going on,'' said Firunts, 14, before departing for the nation's capital on Sunday. Still, the slender, fiery wunderkind wun·der·kind n. pl. wun·der·kin·der 1. A child prodigy. 2. A person of remarkable talent or ability who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age. admits to prepping for the granddaddy of all spelling bees spelling bee n. A contest in which competitors are eliminated as they fail to spell a given word correctly. Also called spelldown. Noun 1. , boning up on her orthography for about an hour a day since winning the championship at the Daily News Regional Spelling Bee in March. ``I like to win,'' said Firunts, who was crowned the victor this spring when she successfully tackled the word, ``gules gules n. Heraldry The color red, indicated on a blazon by vertical lines. [Middle English goules, from Old French, red fur neckpiece, pl. .'' At last year's national finals, the two-time regional champ was stumped stump n. 1. The part of a tree trunk left protruding from the ground after the tree has fallen or has been felled. 2. by ``trenchantly'' and eliminated in the third round. She has higher hopes for this year's contest but is wary of the competitors who tend to last the longest. ``They devote quite a bit of themselves to the whole thing, and I just have a lot of other things in my life,'' she said. Firunts is the editor of Toll's school paper and is active in Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of political prisoners, to abolish the death penalty and torture of . She also speaks three languages, is an A-student and writes articles for underground magazines. ``She's one of the brightest kids I ever encountered, and there are a lot of bright children around here,'' Assistant Principal Loyal Perry said. Firunts said she hopes to do well to please her mother, Sona Hakopian, a linguist lin·guist n. 1. A person who speaks several languages fluently. 2. A specialist in linguistics. [Latin lingua, language; see who inspired her to enter spelling bees starting in fifth grade. ``When I do well, it puts a smile on her face,'' she said. The contest, in its 74th year, offers a $10,000 cash prize for the winner. |
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