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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 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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. Quota

Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

A proportional part or share.

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

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


2. Inference

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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


3. Lichen

Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

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

A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,

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


4. Divulge

To proclaim publicly

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

The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings

The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.


5. Vacillate

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

To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.

The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

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


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