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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 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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. Heritage

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

To proclaim publicly

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.


2. Typhoon

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

Having a backbone or spinal column.

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

Having or demonstrating enthusiasm


3. Bizarre

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

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

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


4. Sect

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.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

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

The main character in a drama or other literary work.


5. Symbiosis

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

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

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.


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