(A reader asked about the origin of "Spelling Bee" in Fanba, the translation Q&A section, here comes the answer from Zhang Xin, a columnist from Chinadaily website.)

Everybody knows what a spelling bee is?

Yes, it’s a spelling competition among people, especially school children, for spelling out English words. The “bee” in spelling bee means a meeting of many people for a particular activity.

The word “bee” is generally believed to have derived from observing the activity of swarming bees. Swarming because bees like to work together in droves, hence the spelling bee for a spelling contest participated in by a large group of people.

Hope this helps.

（編者注：大家都知道bee 就是蜜蜂，但spelling bee可不是拼寫(xiě)蜜蜂的意思，而是指拼寫(xiě)測(cè)驗(yàn)或拼字比賽。

Bee 除了指蜜蜂外，還有另外一種意思，即“人們聚集在一起執(zhí)行某種任務(wù)或進(jìn)行一場(chǎng)比賽”。這種用法始于18世紀(jì)的美國(guó)，是由蜜蜂的特征引申出來(lái)的，后來(lái)漸漸比match 這個(gè)詞用得更普遍。

Bees 通常形容一個(gè)團(tuán)體中的許多人共同做一件事。這件事很難由某個(gè)人單獨(dú)完成，或者是很多人參與時(shí)更有樂(lè)趣。在友好的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)氣氛下，工作效率會(huì)更高。Spelling bee 就是這樣一種競(jìng)賽。

美國(guó)學(xué)校過(guò)去經(jīng)常舉行背誦比賽，讓學(xué)生展示自己所學(xué)的知識(shí)。每當(dāng)比賽舉行的時(shí)候，全鎮(zhèn)人都來(lái)觀看。學(xué)生們會(huì)按要求成篇成篇地背誦Bible，或者拼寫(xiě)老師能想出來(lái)的最難的詞。在比賽中表現(xiàn)最好、一個(gè)錯(cuò)都不犯的學(xué)生會(huì)獲得嘉獎(jiǎng)。）

Go to Zhang Xin's column

About the author

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

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