ESL Podcast 658 - Judging a Contest
contest - a competition where people or submissions are judged and the one that is best is the winner
You sing so well. Have you ever entered a singing contest?
entry - submission; something that one prepares and then officially gives to someone to participate in a contest or competition
All contest entries are due by Friday at 5:00 p.m.
impartial - objective; fair; without a preference for a particular person or thing
Sometimes teachers cover the students' names when they grade essays and tests so that they can be impartial.
panel of judges - a group of people who evaluate how good something is and then compare their evaluations to create one evaluation for the entire group
If the judges all have similar information and experience, there shouldn't be too much disagreement when the panel of judges meets and makes its decision.
criterion - one factor used when evaluating the quality of something
Your course grade will be based on three criteria: your attendance, your grade on the written essays, and your performance on the oral exam.
to score - to assign a number or letter to something to evaluate the quality of it and compare it to other things
Why did you score the ice skater's performance so low?
scale - a range of values that can be assigned to evaluate the quality of something
Please evaluate the workshop on a 5-point scale: 1 means you thought it was horrible and 5 means you thought it was fantastic.
to average out - to add a group of numbers and then divide that result by the number of items in the group
Hei ate 5 candies, Seunjin ate 14, and Poi ate 2, which averages out to 7 candies per person.
clear winner - a person who has obviously won a contest or competition, being much better than the next person; a person who has won something with a much higher score than other people
Vicky was the clear winner of the race. All the other runners were several minutes behind her.
scorer - a person or entry that has been assigned a certain value or rating in a competition or contest
Shamus is very intelligent, but he has always been a low scorer on standardized tests.
to vote on - for many people to each say which thing they prefer, and for the thing with the most supporters to win
How many people voted on the ballot measure?
majority rules - a phrase used to mean that the person/thing receiving the most votes wins, or that the person/thing receiving more than 50% of the votes wins
I wanted to have Thai food, but my wife and daughter wanted pizza, so we went to a pizza restaurant. Majority rules.
to disqualify - to determine that someone or something cannot participate in a contest or competition because it does not meet all the requirements
Several swimmers were disqualified from the race for using steroids.
guideline - recommendations, rules, or instructions about how something should be done
Read the guidelines in the owners manually carefully before you try to change the oil in your car.
to cull - to reduce the size of a group of things by taking away the weakest, poorest, or least appropriate things
We received hundreds of applications for the job, but we culled them to eliminate the ones that had typos.
eligible - meeting the minimum requirements to have, do, or participate in something
If a family of four in Wisconsin makes less than $28,665, the children are eligible for free school lunches.
to have (one's) work cut out for (one) - to have a lot of work that one needs to do; to need to do a large project or a lot of work
This garage hasn't been cleaned out in more than 10 years! We really have our work cut out for us.
you've got that right - a phrase use to show that one fully agrees with what another person has said
New homes are really expensive!
You've got that right.