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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 

MITIGATION

DEFINITION:
The action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
But after years of record investment by the state in such wildfire risk mitigation, two key money sources are drying up, potentially reducing the state’s annual budget for vegetation removal by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Los Angeles Times, 06/01/2026

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. Ellipse

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

Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


2. Protagonist

The main character in a drama or other literary work.

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

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles


3. Renegade

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

The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.


4. Divulge

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

To proclaim publicly

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


5. Boisterous

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.


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