OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The National Spelling Bee opened with “glasnost” and was soon followed by “perestroika” — a fascinating choice of words for a group of youngsters born long after the heyday of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Speller No. 1 — Meghana Giri of Anniston, Ala. — handled the Cold War-era word “glasnost” without a hitch thismorning at the start of the onstage rounds of the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Meghana was the first of 281 youngsters taking a turn at the microphone in the competition for the title of top speller in the English language. Today’s rounds were to be combined with scores from a computer test to determine the semifinalists. The test included a section on vocabulary for the first time in the bee’s history.
The finals are Thursday night, when the winner will take home more than $30,000 in cash and prizes.
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