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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

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

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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. Hypocrisy

Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.

The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.


2. Immune

Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.

The arrangement of events in time

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.


3. Maneuver

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.

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

A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.


4. Typhoon

An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.

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

A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

A proportional part or share.


5. Vacillate

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

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold


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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.