Words, rice and prize winners

Interested in finding out just how good your vocab is? (Alma, this one is definitely for you. If you can’t do better than me, no one can….)

Try this site:

Best of all, for every word you get right, some grains of rice are donated through the UN to help alleviate hunger. I managed to get up to level 48 (out of 50) but have not as yet managed to climb the last 2 places…

And on quite another matter, which of these books should be awarded the best of the best of the year?

* Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge (Hugo, Locus SF)
* Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (World Fantasy)
* Seeker, Jack McDevitt (Nebula)
* The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Locus Fantasy)
* Titan, Ben Bova (Campbell)
* Spin Control, Chris Moriarty (PKDick)
* Nova Swing, M. John Harrison (Clarke)
* The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer)

Over at the Science Fiction Awards Watch, they want to know, so hop over there and vote. My problem is that I have only read one on the list, and I definitely don’t think that should have won anything at all… I suspect it won its award because more people read it (the author being particular well-known), so it picked up more votes by default. I suspect people vote for what they know, even if they don’t read much in a particular category.


Comments

Words, rice and prize winners — 8 Comments

  1. I got up to 49 for all of one word, then plummeted back down to 41 again….

    There are some interesting words coming up – I’ll give it another go.

    Barb

  2. I got up to 50 a couple of times but was only able to stay there for one word then each time I backslid to the low forties. And I hope someone has had a good meal out of my vocabulary – I wonder how much 3000 grains of rice weigh?

  3. Addictive! I’ll try again tomorrow – I’d got to the point by 3000 grains that I was still getting words wrong when they came up a second time. It would be a neat way to increase one’s vocab if one could remember the wrong’uns.

  4. Lol! – I’m actually steeering clear of it at the moment. I have two projects which have to be finished by the end of the year…

  5. Been there, done that, Glenda [grin] You knew I couldn’t resist this…

    My highest score was 57, but I stayed there for a single word and then I got the next three wrong, and down I went again – but I managed to hover at 52 for a while, there,

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