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. Gargoyle
► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.
► Being without or almost without hope
► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.
► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.
2. Tariff
► To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark
► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline
► The arrangement of events in time
► A schedule of prices or fees.
3. Pulverize
► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.
► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
► To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.
► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.
4. Laconic
► Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.
5. Formidable
► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder
► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
► Having a backbone or spinal column.
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.