Most of us won’t have even heard of the word ‘eleemosynary’ , but Indian origin 10-year-old Rhea spelled this word correctly and won the crown of Brainiest child in Britain .
Meet Rhea, this 10-year-old girl is originally from India but shifted to the UK with her family from US 6 years back. A resident of West London Rhea whose surname has not been revealed shot ahead in the beginning of the final round, with six correct answers more than the opponent who was at two points. But later she drew equal on nine points with her opponent Saffy, as they entered the final head-to-head question round.
The quiz was hosted by Richard Osman, who hailed this year’s show as “the greatest final in the history of Child Genius”, said, “the audience were left gasping as the finalists calculated sums including ’14 times 3, minus 16, times 3, divided by 2, plus 44′, and answered questions such as which nationality was composer Gustav Holst (English).”
Rhea who aspires to go to Oxford or Cambridge to train to be a doctor, won the trophy which was as big as her. She won the title after correctly spelling polydactylous (meaning having many digits) and thelytokous (which means producing only females).
In the final round, she had to answer a series of fiendish questions on her specialist subject – the influence of Miss Nightingale on military and domestic health care reform from 1853 to 1914.
Controversy
The controversy came in account when Rhea’s mother, Sonal who left her job as an obstetrician to train her intervened when her daughter missed one point.
The question was, “To which medical officer did Florence Nightingale report to in the Crimea?” After Sonal’s intervening, independent adjudicator Olivia van der Werff agreed it had been too general and accepted Rhea’s answer of Dr. Duncan Menzies.
The answer to this question avoided a tie-break with Birmingham-born Stephen with Saffy and Rhea securing their place in the final.
Rhea spelled the word “eleemosynary” correctly and won the award of Child Genius 2016, after which she said, “It’s meant getting up early, going to sleep late, studying. It just feels really, really great.”
The program was watched on Channel 4 on Tuesday by an average of 1.3 million viewers.
Questions which are responsible for her victory are –
- What was the name of the artist who painted Harmony in Red?
- In the navigational term GPS, what does the letter P stand for?
- In which year of the 18th century was America’s Declaration of Independence?
- The conflict between Britain and Spain which began in October 1739 was the so-called War of Jenkins’ ___?
- Three hydrogen atoms and one nitrogen atom make up one molecule of what?
- Which British Prime Minister was a neighbor of the Nightingale family?
- Who, in a letter to the Duke of Cambridge, famously said of Nightingale ‘I wish we had her in the war office’?
Answers: 1) Henri Matisse, 2) Positioning, 3) 1776, 4) Ear, 5) Ammonia, 6) Lord Palmerston, 7) Queen Victor
How many of these could you answer ?
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