TIE | The Los Angeles Times in Education

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. Renaissance

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

► To cringe in fear

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

► A rebirth or revival.

2. Laconic

► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

► A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

3. Plateau

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

► An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

4. Nebula

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► Any of various relatively small sailing or motor-driven vessels used for pleasure cruises or racing.

► A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness

5. Vertebrate

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

► The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

► To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

► A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

Common Core State Standard
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.

BACKLOT

Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words

BACKLOT
DEFINITION: An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.	FOUND IN THE NEWS: Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor. ►The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

BACKLOT

Words in the News Quiz5 Middle School Words

Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words