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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 

THRESHOLD

DEFINITION:
A level, point, or value at which something is true.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 09/28/2026

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. Plateau

► Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

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

► To cringe in fear

► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder


2. Jaunty

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

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

► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates


3. Tariff

► One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

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

► Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

► A schedule of prices or fees.


4. Embargo

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

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

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.


5. Vaccine

► The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

► The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables


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