okigbo wrote:Columnist: The winner of this year's national spelling bee won by correctly spelling the spoken word Ursprache, which means "fame" in German. Given the richness of our language, why must we resort to words taken from modern foreign languages to challenge our best spellers? Ursprache is listed in our dictionary, as are words from many other foreign languages, but future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects because spelling English words, not knowledge of linguistics and international phonetics, is the point of these contests.

Which of the following can most reasonably be inferred from the argument above?

The author argues that the point of spelling contests is spelling English words. The point of these contest is not about knowledge of language or phonetics (sounds, pronunciation). Lets see which answer choice comes close to this paraphrase.

a. The spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words in the dictionary.
Incorrect : Nothing in the passage implies that the spelling contest winner knew how to spell most of the anglicized words.

b. Foreign words are more difficult than anglicized words for all contestants to spell.
Incorrect : Difficulty level of foreign words for all the contestants is not mentioned in the passage.

c. Spelling contestant winners should be determined by their facility with all aspects of language.
Incorrect : The passage only says that future spelling bees should limit themselves to words in our dictionary that have been anglicized in all aspects. This clearly does not mean that winners should be determined by the facility with ALL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE.

d. To spell foreign words, contestants must recognize the language and know its pronunciation.
Correct : This answer choice comes close to our paraphrase above.

e. The English language contains more borrowed words than most other languages.
Incorrect : We cannot infer this from the passage.