LS.CCS.4/5/6 Grades 3-12: Students are asked to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words through multiple choice vocabulary quizzes. Quizzes are designed to help students demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in words, acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words, and gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. Students are then asked to find the words within the newspaper and copy the sentence for context to its overall meaning or function in a sentence.
Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words
Click on the correct answer in the quiz below.
Then see if you can find the word in your newspaper -- the print edition, the website or the digital edition and copy the sentence for context. NOTE: High School words are much harder to find!
1. Vertebrate
► Having a backbone or spinal column.
► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.
2. Deign
► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant
► Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.
► To condescend to give or grant
3. Pulverize
► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.
► An embankment built to prevent flooding
► To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.
► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm
4. Omnivore
► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
► One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.
► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles
5. Deduction
► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.
► To stress or emphasize; intensify
► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.
► To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark