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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.
This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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. Toxin

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.

To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.


2. Tariff

The arrangement of events in time

A schedule of prices or fees.

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

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.


3. Renegade

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


4. Sect

To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.

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


5. Parasite

A metric unit of length equal to 1,000 meters (0.62 mile).

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

One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.

Having or demonstrating enthusiasm


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