THIS SPELL CHECKER KNOWS DEFINITIONS.Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - Fourteen-year-old David Pruden has many things on his mind these days. About 23,400, actually. That's how many words he's memorizing for the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee spelling bee n. A contest in which competitors are eliminated as they fail to spell a given word correctly. Also called spelldown. Noun 1. next month in Washington, D.C. The eighth-grader is headed to the spelling big leagues after taking first place about two weeks ago in regional competition. His winning word was ``chrysanthemum chrysanthemum (krĭsăn`thəməm), name for a large number of annual or perennial herbs of the genus Chrysanthemum of the family Asteraceae (aster family), some cultivated in Asia for at least 2,000 years. .'' Now he is preparing for written and oral tests that await AWAIT, crim. law. Seems to signify what is now understood by lying in wait, or way-laying. him and his spelling competitors in the nation's capital. Results determine who moves into the main rounds of the event. ``My goal right now is just to pass the test, and if I pass that, then my goals will go higher,'' David said. The Placerita Junior High School student has always had his eye on the competition, but his free time is nearly all consumed con·sume v. con·sumed, con·sum·ing, con·sumes v.tr. 1. To take in as food; eat or drink up. See Synonyms at eat. 2. a. with band practice, his church group, the chess club and maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average. This year, however, it was now or never for him to enter the spelling competition, open only to students through eighth grade. ``I said to him, if you're going to do this, just go for it, because eighth grade is the cut-off cut-off Anesthesiology The point at which elongation of the carbon chain of the 1-alkanol family of anesthetics results in a precipitous drop in the anesthetic potential of these agents–eg, at > 12 carbons in length, there is little anesthetic activity, ,'' his mother, Connie Pruden, explained. She and her son have always tested each other in spelling and vocabulary on a low-key basis around the house. That extra focus helped launch David into second place last year during a schoolwide spelling bee. When this year's competition took place at the school, David was David Was (born David Weiss, 26 October 1952, Detroit) is, with his stage-brother Don Was, the founder of the influential 1980s pop group, Was (Not Was). Reviewed by The New York Times ready to take first place. He had studied a book that contained more than 4,000 words commonly used in spelling bees. His mother had quizzed him on each word twice. ``It was fun to watch him in the bee, because I could tell in his head that he was spelling all the words,'' said Jayme Allsman, Placerita English teacher and bee coordinator. ``I think he could have handled anything.'' Sue Doyle, (661) 257-5254 sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- ran in Valley edition only) PRUDEN (2 -- color -- ran in SAC Sac: see Sac and Fox. SAC - 1. An early system on the Datatron 200 series. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. edition only) Regional spelling champ David Pruden, 14, of Santa Clarita shows some of the 23,400 words he has been memorizing for the 78th national bee next month in Washington, D.C. David Crane/Staff Photographer |
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