The words euphoria, joy, discipline, perspectives, adventure, wealth, fun, treasure and ocean on Saturday had one common name — knowledge.
Students selected for the final round of the ‘Oxford Dictionary Quiz 2013’ on Saturday used the words to explain the ‘meaning of knowledge’ to the quizmaster who was determined to elicit an answer from every finalist before starting the quiz.
A few hours later, the winners S. Sadhana Smruthi and Karthi Srinivasan of Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar said: “We were a team that just went out there saying who cares; we will give it a try.”
As the quiz was under way, there was a scramble among the enthusiastic student members of the audience to prove their knowledge to the quizmaster.
S.T. Srivathsan, one of the hundreds of such students who were unable to reach the finals despite giving brilliant answers, said their team participated in the quiz to “prove their knowledge.”
Over 75 schools from the city participated in the quiz. The grand prize was the Oxford Dictionary Quiz Trophy, a work of art crafted in silver, designed to look like a dictionary.
The quiz was based on the Oxford English Corpus, which comprises more than two billion words and continually monitors and researches how language is evolving.
Oxford University Press Regional Sales Manager T.M. Denny, Quiz Master Adittya Nath Mubayi and IIT-M Professor of English and Linguistics Shreesh Chandra Chaudhary distributed prizes to winners.
The quiz was held in two parts — a written preliminary test and the stage round for the top scorers of the test.
Managing director of Oxford University Press India Ranjan Kaul said: “With these quizzes, we at the Oxford University Press, India are able to bring together students from various schools and help them to connect in a meaningful way.”
The Hindu was the media partner for the quiz.
