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. Nebula

► Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

► Being without or almost without hope

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

► The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

2. Mutation

► To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

► A proportional part or share.

► An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

3. Vacillate

► The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.

► The main character in a drama or other literary work.

► The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

4. Levee

► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

► Self-examination.

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

5. Embargo

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

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

► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

► Relating to a system of writing, such as that of ancient Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or sounds or a combination of meaning and sound.

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.

RESPIRATORY

Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words

RESPIRATORY
DEFINITION: Relating to breathing.	FOUND IN THE NEWS: They weren’t warned to wear respiratory and other personal protection because the burning composite materials from the F-35 stealth fighter were releasing potentially harmful airborne particles and fibers, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. ►The Albuquerque Journal, 03/30/2026

RESPIRATORY

Words in the News Quiz5 Middle School Words

Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words