Twenty-six Nobles students earned gold medals for their high scores on the 2013 National Latin Exam. In addition, two students—Kunal Gupta '14 and Taylor Smith '13—each earned the prestigious Maureen O'Donnell Oxford Classical Dictionary Award for winning a gold medal each of the last four years.
The Nobles gold medalists are: Latin I—Lauren Barbieri, Will DiFelice, Annie Ellison, Sophia Millay, Addy Mitchell, Elizabeth Paglione, Chad Polk, Peter Scharer, Iain Sheerin, Christopher Sun, Uche Ndukwe; Latin 2—Matt Abate, Carlo Abelli, Bill Farley, Olivia Harden, Elizabeth Johnson, Max Jones, Kevin Lin, Fiona Splaine; Latin 3—Neha Bhambhani, Andrew Gord, Bill Mizgerd, William Wang; Latin 4—Jonathan Bloch, Kunal Gupta; Latin 5—Taylor Smith.
How well would you have done? Here are a few sample questions from this year's test:
- The abbreviation N.B. stands for the Latin phrase Nota Bene which means A) Note well B) Make haste C) And the rest D) Farewell
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Who was the Roman goddess of wisdom, war, and weaving? A) Juno B) Diana C) Minerva D) Venus
- After the long flight, the airline passengers were glad to return to terra firma. A) solid ground B) a rural area C) their homeland D) unknown territory
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What might Mary say after she has successfully graduated from college while working three jobs and caring for a sick family member?A) Ad astra per aspera B) Caveat emptor C) Ignorantia legis neminem excusat D) Status quo
More than149,000 Latin students from all 50 states participated this past year, as did students from 13 foreign countries, including Australia, Mexico, Belgium, Canada, China Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. This year for the first time, students from Bulgaria and Mozambique also took the NLE. For more information about the National Latin Exam, visit http://www.nle.org.