Vocabulary.com was honored to serve as a judge last week for The Fourth Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest. More than 400 students posted responses to New York Times articles on the New York Times Learning Network blog, and we selected the ones we felt to be the strongest. Check out the contest results here.
Although it was difficult to choose among so many articulate and inspiring student entries, doing so proved beyond a doubt that reading an article in the Times has the power to light a spark in a young writer. Whether they were expressing a renewed hope for transgender equality or simply thinking about the genre of obituaries in a new way, contest participants did more than digest news; they recognized how news relates to their lives and has the power to transform their perceptions.
As vocabulary learners, we were also impressed by the ease and fluency with which the teen writers participating in the contest (and not just the winners!) used specific and powerful words. We encountered olfactory, poignant, nostalgic, iconic, facet, tentative, inexplicable, and permeate in our reading. Not too shabby!
Want to see how your vocabulary knowledge stacks up against contest winners'? Quiz yourself on this 40-word Vocabulary List collected from the winning entries.
If you're a student interested in participating, note that the contest is continuing throughout the summer. Find details here.