Everyday, people play the crossword, or jumble, or play Scrabble, or any of a thousand word games across the World. Word games are popular, and they increase a person's vocabulary, which makes a person smarter, more communicative, and a better person overall.
Everyday, people die of hunger in places all over the world, because of low crop yields, war, famine and inadequate water. Hunger is a problem, and as one often sees on television, people die.
Now, there is a website online that can, at the same time, make a person smarter and save a person's (or many person's) life.
That site is called freerice.com, and the idea is simple. On the site is a vocabulary matching game. You're given a few tries to set your level, then every time you miss one you go down a level. Every three tries that you're right, you go up a level. Each level includes harder and harder words.
From the Frequently Asked Questions document of freerice.com:
"FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In between are thousands of words for students of all ages, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!"
"FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place."
"There are 60 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 50."
(I'm at level 35 right now, but the highest I've reached is 40.)
For every correct answer, freerice.com's sponsors (there are advertising banners on the site, that's how they generate their revenue) donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. That doesn't seem like much, though in the few minutes I've been playing (and playing it even as I write this article, the game is simply addictive), I've accumulated 680 grains of rice.
A wooden bowl on the side of the screen fills up with rice as you play, so you have a visual reminder of your progress.
Yet 680 grains of rice still doesn't seem that much. It probably takes a few thousand grains just to have enough to put gravy on and make a side dish here in the South. But, according to the site's Totals page, the month of May brought in 4,657,641,260 grains of rice. That's over four and a half trillion grains. More than a few bowl fulls, I'm sure.
How many people did you feed yesterday when you finished the crossword or the jumble? When your family got together to play Scrabble? (That last one might be a bad example; everytime we've played Scrabble, we've had pizza.)
Go play www.freerice.com for a few minutes. Strengthen your vocabulary. Beat my score. Feed some hungry people. You'll have wasted time AND done something productive in the very same action. And if your boss finds you goofing off while on the site, just say that you're expanding your vocabulary so that the next report or article you write won't be so boring.
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Everyday, people play the crossword, or jumble, or play Scrabble, or any of a thousand word games across the World. Word games are popular, and they increase a person's vocabulary, which makes a person smarter, more communicative, and a better person overall.
Everyday, people die of hunger in places all over the world, because of low crop yields, war, famine and inadequate water. Hunger is a problem, and as one often sees on television, people die.
Now, there is a website online that can, at the same time, make a person smarter and save a person's (or many person's) life.
That site is called freerice.com, and the idea is simple. On the site is a vocabulary matching game. You're given a few tries to set your level, then every time you miss one you go down a level. Every three tries that you're right, you go up a level. Each level includes harder and harder words.
From the Frequently Asked Questions document of freerice.com:
"FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In between are thousands of words for students of all ages, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!"
"FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place."
"There are 60 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 50."
(I'm at level 35 right now, but the highest I've reached is 40.)
For every correct answer, freerice.com's sponsors (there are advertising banners on the site, that's how they generate their revenue) donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. That doesn't seem like much, though in the few minutes I've been playing (and playing it even as I write this article, the game is simply addictive), I've accumulated 680 grains of rice.
A wooden bowl on the side of the screen fills up with rice as you play, so you have a visual reminder of your progress.
Yet 680 grains of rice still doesn't seem that much. It probably takes a few thousand grains just to have enough to put gravy on and make a side dish here in the South. But, according to the site's Totals page, the month of May brought in 4,657,641,260 grains of rice. That's over four and a half trillion grains. More than a few bowl fulls, I'm sure.
How many people did you feed yesterday when you finished the crossword or the jumble? When your family got together to play Scrabble? (That last one might be a bad example; everytime we've played Scrabble, we've had pizza.)
Go play www.freerice.com for a few minutes. Strengthen your vocabulary. Beat my score. Feed some hungry people. You'll have wasted time AND done something productive in the very same action. And if your boss finds you goofing off while on the site, just say that you're expanding your vocabulary so that the next report or article you write won't be so boring.
