拼寫世界上最難的單詞，麻煩還是藝術？

Spelling may be in trouble in the era of “covfefe.” But it’s serious business at this week’s Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, with ESPN coverage and $40,000 for the winner.

在“covfefe”(特朗普總統(tǒng)在Twitter拼錯的單詞——譯注)的時代，拼寫可能是一種麻煩。但在本周華盛頓附近舉行的斯克里普斯國家拼字比賽(Scripps National Spelling Bee)上，這是一件嚴肅的事，獲勝者將獲得4萬美元，以及ESPN的報道。

It’s a far cry from 1925, when Frank Neuhauser got $500 in gold as the bee’s first winner. He had to spell his winning word, “gladiolus,” for strangers for the rest of his life.

這與1925年比起來相差甚遠，當時弗蘭克·紐豪斯(Frank Neuhauser)獲得了價值500美元的黃金，成為比賽的第一位冠軍。他在余生都不得不為陌生人拼寫讓他得勝的那個單詞“gladiolus”(唐菖蒲)。

Last year’s winner was Ananya Vinay, who won with “marocain.” Although she isn’t allowed to compete in this year’s national bee, she’s still spelling and coaching others.

去年的冠軍是阿納妮亞·維奈(Ananya Vinay)，他以“marocain”(馬羅坎棱紋縐)獲得了冠軍。“雖然她不能繼續(xù)參加今年的全國拼字比賽，但她仍在拼寫和指導其他人。

Texas is the state with the most winners, 11. Twenty-two states have had none. Spellers from other countries can compete, and the first international winner was Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998, above, with “chiaroscurist.” There are spellers from five countries other than the U.S. this year.

德州是贏家最多的州，共計11個。22個州沒有出過冠軍。來自其他國家的拼寫者也可以參加比賽，第一個國際冠軍是1998年奪冠、來自牙買加的喬迪-安妮·馬克斯韋爾(Jody-Anne Maxwell，上圖)，她以“chiaroscurist”(明暗對比論者)獲勝。今年有來自美國以外五個國家的選手參賽。

The longest winning word was “scherenschnitte,” spelled by Vanya Shivashankar, who was a co-champion in 2015. The shortest was “luge,” which won Daniel Greenblatt the title in 1984.

最長的致勝單詞是“scherenschnitte”(剪紙)，由2015年的聯(lián)合冠軍瓦尼亞·希瓦尚卡(Vanya Shivashankar)拼寫出來。最短的是“luge”(無舵雪橇)，1984年丹尼爾·格林布拉特(Daniel Greenblatt)憑此獲得冠軍。

In 1983, a child who lost made news. Andrew Flosdorf was praised “for his utter honesty” after telling the judges they misheard him when they said he spelled “echolalia” correctly. “I didn’t want to feel like a slime,” he said.

1983年，一個輸了的孩子成為了新聞。安德魯·弗洛斯多夫(Andrew Flosdorf)“因為完全的誠實”而受到稱贊，他告訴評委，他們錯誤地把他拼寫的“echolalia”聽成是對的。“我不想覺得自己像是個卑鄙的人，”他說。