Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache, which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?

A.The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.

B.Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.

C.Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.

D.To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.

E.The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.

The Q is from the MGCAT .

The answer is D .
The inference should be with respect to the Aurthor's concern abt the use of foreign language words that contestants are given.

In that case C should be the answer !!!
Kindly correct me if i am wrong .. Thanks in Advance !!

What i feel is that the main topic of contention and the feel of the arguement is that the contestants are given unusually difficult words from foreign languages .

this is contrary to the explanation given ...

Pls let me know if my line of thinking is apt!!!!

this is an inference question. this means that you're looking for a statement that is REQUIRED TO BE TRUE.

choice (d) is the only statement that, according to this passage, MUST be true. note the mention of "knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics" in the passage; this implies that correct spelling of foreign (non-english) words requires such knowledge.

choice (c) is not required by the passage; it's nearly impossible for a statement containing "should" to be required. moreover, and far worse, this statement is actually contrary to the spirit of the passage!
the main idea of the passage is that english spelling bees should be, basically, limited to native english words, and that many aspects of language - including the foreign influences on spelling - should be EXCLUDED from spelling contests. this is precisely the opposite of what is posited in choice (c).

hope this helps.

As a German native (as an Austrian to be exact) I apparently know less about my language than an 8th grader of Jersey. Yeah, right. Possibly the judges of the belling spee trusted an unreliable source:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/ursprache

Most important dictionary in German:
http://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/ursprache

Ursprache means only original language. This GMAT question may distract a German (and an Austrian or Swiss) test taker.

Regards

(Great GMAT CAT Macfriendly Application by the way)

Interesting! :-)

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hi there,

Wondering why choice B ("Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.") can't be a right answer here?

The columnist states: "Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers?" -- which I thought would infer that foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words to spell since he suggests its used to "challenge our best spellers"?

Can someone please explain why B isn't a good answer?

Thanks in advance!

The author of the argument is saying nothing about the difficulty of accomplishing the tasks the spelling bee asks for, but instead claims the spelling bee should be asking for students to complete DIFFERENT tasks (not necessarily EASIER ones). Also note that B makes an unwarranted generalization about ALL contestants..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Hi Ron,
Not sure how are you able to conclude that.
Ursprache is an english word since it is written in english, and its meeting the author's criteria viz. spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

I dont understand why is then the author so against using foreign words like the one used above ?
In face, I dont understand why is the argument actually here. It conflicting its own statement in so many ways.