Two contestants remained in the 2004 national spelling bee—teens akshay buddiga and david tidmarsh. the two finalists alternated spelling words that sound foreign to most people. tidmarsh successfully made it through a minefield of words such as sumpsimus, sophrosyne, and serpiginous. meanwhile, his rival buddiga fainted when he was asked to spell alopecoid, and he was forced to finish the competition from his seat in case he fainted again. buddiga was then asked to spell schwarmerei, which he missed. with a respectable number-two ranking, buddiga was applauded by the crowd, including the defeated spellers, who knew how hard the 13-year-old had worked. tidmarsh, meanwhile, was ecstatic with his victory. buddiga found the situation to be a overwhelming b juvenile c abrasive d monotonous