Redmond girl in National Geographic Bee finals

WASHINGTON — Standing alone at a microphone with 15 seconds to think, could you put the cities of Kabul, Sydney and Belize City in order of annual rainfall, from most to least?

Caitlin Snaring of Redmond can — a talent that got her into today's final round at the National Geographic Bee in Washington.

Snaring, 14, is a home-schooled eighth-grader making her second appearance in the geography bee. Last year, she missed only one question — about a specific type of storm cloud — and was knocked out.

"This year [the questions] were incredibly easy," she said.

She finished the preliminary competition on Tuesday with a perfect score, one of only two students to achieve a flawless performance.

Snaring and nine other finalists from around the United States and its territories will face "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek today. Students in grades four through eight are eligible to compete.

The questions at the bee ranged from the location of rivers to political upheaval, demographics and land formations. With each question, Snaring coolly stared ahead for a few seconds before responding.

Her father, David Snaring, said his daughter got serious about studying for the bee after her miss in 2006. She created binders of information broken down by continent. "She is so motivated," he said.

Snaring said she also creates color-coded maps to keep track of world politics, industry and religion.

"The Afro-Asiatic language is green," she explained.

Her mom, Traci Snaring, said she could answer fewer than half the questions her daughter got correct.

David Snaring said one advantage to home-schooling his daughter has been the flexibility to focus more intensely on geography.

Next year, Snaring will attend Interlake High School in Bellevue. She wants to learn Spanish and Chinese with the career goal of becoming a history professor or an international diplomat negotiating trade deals between countries.

Until then, learning the technical names of land formations in Ireland is not all she does. Snaring takes pottery classes and plays the piano, including Tchaikovsky and the theme from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

She is carrying a little pressure on her shoulders beyond the prospect of winning the $25,000 scholarship.

She is the only girl in the finals. And if she wins, she'll be only the second female champion in the 19-year history of the geography bee.

"I have to apologize to everyone because we're rooting for Caitlin," said Gilbert Grosvenor, National Geographic Society Board chairman.

Tuesday night, Snaring said, she planned to look over information on major cities and get a little rest.

And in case you haven't figured it out, the answer to that annual-rainfall question is: Belize City, Sydney, Kabul.