Competition of spelling

There was a competition of spelling at 6:00 pm today. Although I have printed the vocabularies two weeks ago, I still had no time to memorize them. I started memorzing them just two days ago. During the memorizing, I found that there were some words making me confused. For example, we usually use "pharmasist" which means a person skilled in the making of medicine. But I also saw another word "apothecary" which has the same meaning. They are all means "藥劑師" in Chinese, but what is the difference between them? After looking up them in the dictonary, I eventually knew the difference: "pharmasist" is the modern word. On the contrary, "apothecary" is the old use. I was so excited that I knew another old-fashioned word again. I had great interest in the words which are old-used. In my opinion, they are more elegant than modern words.
The other doubt in memorizing is that there are "cancer" and "carcinoma" which are both mean "癌症" in Chinese. What is the difference between them? Again, after looking up them in the dictionary, I found that "carcinoma" is the medical use.
Although I didn't do well in the competition, I still reap no little benefit in this experience because I not only learn a lot of new word but knew many medical phrases and old-used words.
I determined to join the competition again next year!