Vocabulary: Accuracy and precision 詞匯: 準確和精密

Is your spelling accurate? That's the question being asked by a British charity this week.

Mencap claim that a new generation of people cannot spell, as they rely on their computer's auto-correct function far too much.

In a survey, the charity found that 65% of people could not spell the word 'necessary' without making a mistake. Three quarters of respondents also believed they were very good at spelling.

According to the charity, computers often provide imperfect results and lead to grammatical errors. They highlighted the word 'manifest', which is sometimes verified by a computer's spell-check, and then replaced by the word 'manipulate'. The spelling may be exact, but the computer is trying to guess the correct meaning of the sentence. Imprecise spelling can also lead to disadvantage in the workplace. Misspelt words on a CV can reflect badly on a person's attitude and character.

The charity is now holding a 'Spellathon' championship in which competitors are asked to carefully spell words out loud. The hope is that if people recite the spelling of words from memory, it will encourage others to check their own spelling.

Critics have warned that simply blaming technology for bad spelling is unfair and does not address the real educational reasons for the decline in spelling standards. So how meticulous are you with your spelling? Can you spell words such as 'definitely' or 'accidentally' with ease?