I was on Facebook when I came across a group about Free Rice.
Free Rice is a website that tests your vocabulary skills - a word pops up, and then there are four choices. You choose the one that best defines the word.
For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to help end world hunger.

http://www.freerice.com

So far, my highest vocab level on the site is 46, and I got 1160 grains in a sitting (it resets every time you leave the site, unless you go to Options and change it.)
What about you guys?


EDIT Feb 24, 2008:
There is now a similar site that can be found at http://www.freeflour.com


If you don't have the time to answer random questions to donate, there are similar sites where you can "Feed a child with just a click." It really doesn't take very much to save someone from starvation. Here is one site: http://www.thehungersite.com



Information about poverty can be found at http://poverty.com

Seems like a really cool website!

I tried it out. Keep in mind I was really tired, so my constant ranking was around 42-43 the whole time with 43 being my high.

In total I donated 1300 grains of rice.. pretty good for 10 minutes of fun!

Thanks, gracie for finding it and pointing out the website.

Yeah, I read about it a couple of days ago. Really cool site. The guy who made it is the one who made thehungersite as well. It started out as a way for his son to practice for the SAT, but then he realized it could make money too. So nah, it ain't a hoax. Read an article on it somewhere, but computer's being pathetically slow today so can't put it up.

I 'donated' 2200 rice grains today. My best vocab level is 37 (no dictionary).

How did you get so high?? :eek: The highest level is 50 and according to the article I read, most people don't get beyond level 48. You're doing pretty well if you're hitting the 40s. 70% of those words are not used in everyday language!

I like the site though, I showed it to my boss today and he played it a bit too. It's great for improving your vocabulary.

By the way, for anyone who wants to play it (it's a game, the money for the rice is paid for by the advertisers) the link is: www.freerice.com (http://www.freerice.com)

Yeah, some of the words in there are very obscure... I read a lot, so that helps, I guess. And prefixes/suffixes help.

I thought I'd put the site up... guess not. Thanks, storm, I think I'll add that in the first post as well.

How did you get so high?? :eek: The highest level is 50 and according to the article I read, most people don't get beyond level 48. You're doing pretty well if you're hitting the 40s. 70% of those words are not used in everyday language!


Didn't know all that. gracie must be at the genius level :) My excuse for being in the 40s is being an English teacher.

I tried it quick I loved it .I got to 42 went down to 37 but was stayed around 41 most of the time.What a brilliant idea its great to keep your mind active plus do something good ..thanks Gracie xxx

Not only does it get you thinking, but it's for a good cause :D I donated 1000 grains of rice and saved it in my links to go back when im bored. :) Thanks gracie xxx

I remember hearing about this from my UofA friends... apparently one of them spent 20 hours playing and flunked a homework assignment... I've been rather hesitant to go on after that knowing my addictive personality

20 hours.. straight? You university students..

New high score! I'm getting closer... though I have to admit that those last couple before I hit 49 were complete guesses. I mean... pulchritudinous. (It makes a good Facebook status, though.)

And it also looks like FreeRice has added a new feature - I haven't seen that pronounciation option before. (The little megaphone thing in the top left)

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r228/gracie_gracers/FreeRice.jpg

Oh gracie gracie gracie. You're a mega member now!? Ahaha
What's agave mean? If you're so smart ;)

I got that one wrong. ]: And you need a better avatar, Steven. :P

There is now a new site called FreeFlour. I'll add this to the original post as well.
http://www.freeflour.com

For each question you answer correctly, you donate one spoon of flour. (This will probably get larger as the site becomes more prominent.. FreeRice started with 10 grains of rice per word, and it has now become 20 grains of rice.) So far it seems like most questions are on cities, countries, and what these places are renowned for.

OK this is for DG: just gave it another shot and 43 is my all time highest. woop.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/aurora_rose2005/fr43.jpg

There are loads of new options now in the Options (http://www.freerice.com/options.php) tab! You can decide which level you want to start at and whether you want words to repeat if you get them wrong!

Sometimes I feel like I could give you a synonym for a word but I won't actually know what it means! :rolleyes: (<<< my favourite smiley on here! ^_^)


EDIT:

Hit 15K rice grains! :-D

http://i31.tinypic.com/bhx5wk.jpg