5月16日，高二年级Spelling Bee比赛在体育馆二楼如期举行。经过前期激烈的班级选拔，共有32名选手代表8个班级参与本次的Spelling Bee总决赛。

开场选手们以班级为单位进行自我介绍，帅气的团队照、新奇有趣的队名和极具创意的口号引起阵阵欢笑和欢呼，同学们纷纷为选手们加油打气。

接着就进入了比赛阶段。经过一轮适应赛，选手们都跃跃欲试、蓄势待发。各位“蜜蜂”的实力都不容小觑，一轮下来，没有人被淘汰。随着拼词次数的增加，选手们渐入佳境，褪去了初上台的紧张与犹疑，有些选手甚至能不问释义和例句一口气快速地拼完单词。

比赛逐渐进入高潮阶段，出现的单词也越来越长且生僻。轮到的选手走到话筒前紧张地等待，内心默默祈祷被问到自己熟识的单词。听到单词后，选手们往往要进行重复、释义或是例句的询问请求，反复确认，小心拼写，一边要拼出复杂绕口的单词，一边又要留心不要口误出错。观众也屏息凝神，替选手紧张焦急。听到评委说出“Correct”后，选手长舒一口气，回到座位，台下一片掌声；而听到“Sorry”的选手则遗憾落败，走下舞台，同学们亦以掌声相迎。

本次Spelling Bee特别为选手设置了一次求助本班同学的机会。同学们中间也卧虎藏龙，不少高手因为小失误而未通过班级选拔，此时他们便成了台上选手最坚实的后盾。台上和台下的帮助与联结让我们看到了集体的智慧和力量。

各位选手们的实力不相上下，各种长难词汇都难不倒他们，直到下课仍未决出胜负。比赛不得不在中午进行直播加时赛，才决出最后的冠军。尽管近期学业繁忙，台上选手和台下观众仍全神贯注地在课外沉潜词汇海洋，寻觅语言的光亮，以扎实的基础、精准的拼写、丰富的词汇和卓越的综合实力，为我们呈现了一场紧张而精彩的比赛，这便是杭外人的魅力和精神。

作为杭外外文节的一项传统，Spelling Bee为同学们提供了一次锻炼自我的机会，回顾了高中以来学习的单词，更让词汇和英语的魅力深入人心。本次Spelling Bee也再次展现了杭外学子在词汇和英文方面突出的能力以及优秀的综合素质。相信杭外人也将利用好自身的外文优势，继续坚定前行，继续闪闪发光！

                                         高二8班 项劭怡 报道

                                         高二8班 童谣 高二7班 林泊舟 摄影

附：2023年外文节高二年级Spelling Bee获奖名单

Spelling Bee Champion 冠军

6A郭皓言 Francisco

First Prize Winners 一等奖

5B陈翊斐 Josephine、3B傅芷祎 Tina、 3B李承展 Sophia、6A 蒋翌楠 Carrie

Second Prize Winners 二等奖

1B边策 Jenny、2B郑以诺 Molly、5A张可优 Bella、7A傅蒋紫玥 Alyssa

3A薛瑀沜 Meghan、4B蒋乐祺 Diana、8B刘雅珞 Ariel

Third Prize Winners 三等奖

1A刘思仪 Nancy、6B胡凌萱 Lisa、3A张琦玥 Moon、4A吴雨伦 Alan、5B韦美 Marissa、7A徐冲 Martin、7B袁紫夕 Lisa 、8A王逸忱  Richard

下面是部分选手的比赛心得：

 从四年级到高二，从2015到2023，与Spelling Bee的八年之缘，在HFLS如夏花般绚烂的五月里，画上了句号。回首往昔，这段与鲜花、掌声、荣耀、泪水相伴的征程上的每一串脚印，无一不历历在目。

曾认为四年级和六年级时的湖州市总冠军、初三时的全国季军便是结局，完全不敢奢求未来还能在某个舞台上与Spelling Bee“再续前缘”。对这次外文节的Spelling Bee比赛，唯一的感受就只有震撼、惊喜与珍惜。时隔两年重回Spelling Bee赛场，体会阔别已久的个人赛带来的刺激与心跳，足够忐忑，足够期盼，当然一等奖的结果也足够圆满。

Spelling Bee无疑是对选手心态的巨大考验，站在赛场上，能做的只有尽全力去拼对某个词，然后无悔结果。很幸运，能在最美好的年华遇到Spelling Bee并为之倾尽全力；其实，能够一次次体会这种惊险、刺激与感动，本身就是人生中一笔巨大的财富。

“Spell the word, spell the world”，感谢所有的相遇，感谢所有曾与我并肩作战的“战友”们，感谢这段刻骨铭心的缘分。愿每个人都能在拼词的舞台上书写独属于自己的精彩，Spelling Bee，我们不说再见……

——高二3班 李承展

“Spell”是对英文最为简单的拆解行为，却内涵丰富，值得推敲。台上选手的表现非常亮眼，作为台下观众亦是尽力对选手提供力所能及的帮助（虽然亲自送走了两位小伙伴，assassinate!）。但我认为，拼写本身并非本次活动最为触动人心之处。比赛自有胜负之分，优胜者也固然可敬，而台上选手并非人人都准备充分（学业繁忙所致，台下观众更甚），那些直面内心不确定的恐惧而勇敢尝试，不计成败利钝者（无论台上选手亦或台下观众），更让人肃然起敬。敢于试错的勇气，不惧冷嘲热讽之态度，让我看到了鲁迅口中“中国的脊梁”，看到了动人至深的杭外精神。我想这才是本次活动更大的意义。共勉。

——高二4班 陈宇杰

当一听Spelling Bee这个比赛时，很多同学不屑一顾。但是spelling bee单词拼写大赛，却不仅仅与单词拼写有关。它考察了学生对词根词源的熟识，词汇储备量，临危不乱的能力和一定的运气。于我而言，单词的魅力不在于记忆它，而在于理解它和使用它。我更偏向于“不为记而记单词”的学习法。我在本次比赛中名次不高，但收获良多。名次总有高低之分，但是方法却无好坏之分。在具有杭外特色的赛制之下，这场比赛让我们更好地学会了团队合作，增强了集体荣誉感。

——高二1班 刘思仪

作为台下观众，我在本次Spelling Bee活动中深刻感受到了英语语言的魅力。台上的选手们个个词汇丰富，能说善辩，胸有成竹，蓄势待发，积极地准备着Joshua老师的给题。活动中考察的词汇常用，辨识度高，区分度好，我们在观赛的过程中也积累了不少词汇。作为我们班的台下支援者，我也在帮助本班选手中领悟了团队合作的真谛。本次活动不仅仅是对于选手的考验，还是对台下观众词汇的良性补充与积累，同时也激发了同学们英语学习与词汇积累的兴趣，活动意义重大，推荐后续同学踊跃参加。

——高二7班 周祺洋

作为一个抱走三等奖的普通“玩家”，HFLS带给我的这次Spelling Bee体验还是收获颇丰。以词汇量一争高下，注定了这场比赛会是令人心悬一线，精神抖擞的——于是心态也成了胜者手中不可忽视的一枚筹码。克服当你走近话筒，听清词汇时盈拥的混乱与激动，是我这次体验的最大挑战。虽然失足，但这毋庸置疑使我的经验与自信得到了reinforcement！不会打垮你的历练，终将使你更加强大。

——高二8班 王逸忱

比赛前只草草过了一遍五本书的课内单词，上台后满脑子只剩“mosguito”。 Pronouncer在课外list里狂飙，我好似在单词海洋里漂泊。炽热的聚光灯烤得我两眼发昏，激烈的后半段角逐我汗如雨下。一路踩香蕉皮，实力plus运气滑进最后几轮，最终被小小的“a”绊倒遗憾退场。眼看诸位高手过招，心中佩服油然而生。复盘点结，得真理：功夫在平时。

——高二2班 郑以诺

感谢Joshua和Carrie没有考我kraken和finale，感谢徐沈同学把我从陆龟口中救出，感谢左边李同学陪我聊天，感谢同班选手同意了我想的队名并陪我蜜蜂叫，感谢我的英语老师出现在现场，感谢王老师的美丽发夹，感谢蜜蜂！

——高二5班 陈翊斐

Though this was not my first taste of Speling Bee, this might be the most unforgettable Spelling Bee I've ever experienced. The bee-like hairpins and the idea of forming teams are truly impressive. I can say without exaggeration that during the preparation period, what has “troubled” us the most may not be remembering words but the process of thinking up a team name and a slogan. Anyway remembering the words is without doubt hard.
    Spelling Bee is some competition that things you can prepare are not defined or limited. When I was onstage in front of the whole grade, my fear towards uncertainty continuously tortured me. However, I tried to pretend to be really calm, or it would be much easier for me to make mistakes. The competition of Spelling Bee challenged our ability to think clearly and stay calm under stressful situations greatly.
    Luckily, with my store of words, I entered the “livestreaming" stage, but the luck didn't last long and I ended up 2nd Prize. The 2nd Prize may be satisfying, but it will never be the end of my journey of building up vocabulary and learning English.

                                                  ——高二7班 傅蒋紫玥

It is dearly interesting to see myself winning the Spelling Bee, as I don’t have a especially large vocabulary bank. Honestly speaking, my English competence is not very outstanding: my grammar sucks (But you don’t need to be grammatically correct in this competition, right?), I make nearly every kind of foolish errors in exams, and don’t usually have a good score. But one thing I can make sure of is I hardly spell words wrongly. It is hard to say why, but I would reckon that I have a relatively good sense of the English language. It does not come from nowhere, however, it is based on my habitual attention to how words are spelt. I admit that it takes a bit of talent to remember (at least how to spell) most of the words as long as I first see (and be able to read) them, even if they are proper nouns in Latin or Greek like “Staphylococcus Aureus”. (I will mention these two languages later on.)

Interestingly, I might be one of the only tri-linguists in the grade. I learn German as my “second” foreign language and have just acquired 19 Points out of 20 in the TestDaF, the Test of German as Foreign Language. German has a lot that relates to the Spelling Bee, for: it as a huge number of long words due to the word-formation rules (e.g. “Wortbildungslehre”: word-formation rules; “Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft”: The Danubian Association for Steam Boat Sails) and the especially regular pronunciation, which I use as a tool to remember the spelling of words that are easy to be blurred (-ance or –ence? –sion or –tion?)

Another key (maybe?) to championship is my interest in languages and linguistics. I am indeed old-school and interested in history so much that I cannot help trying to learn those ancient languages. The name of our team this time (Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων), for instance, originates from a Greek folklore of the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire. It is weird to see that I am able to spell the words (on the Greek keyboard) correctly after seeing them only once or twice. The advantage of being able to read a tiny bit of Latin is, that I can “feel” the spelling of many English words, verbs in particular, even when I have no idea what they mean.

Also I think what really helps in this competition is that I read scientific articles or watch a few scientific videos, so that I have a very wide span of vocabulary. The Spelling Bee competition includes a large number of professional English words that you cannot even guess if you have no idea what they are: embryo and Uranium, or Xanthosis and Staphylococcus (Still remember this word? Good for you if you do!) as shown in the film Akeelah and the Bee.

Obviously not touched by my experience? You can take a few steps to try these tips to see if they can improve your spelling ability!

                                        ——高二6班 郭皓言