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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 

ADVERSE

DEFINITION:
Having a negative or harmful effect on something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
There was no evidence of “any adverse or harmful chemical or other exposures,” he wrote.
The Boston Herald, 06/15/2026

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

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

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

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

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder


2. Sect

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

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


3. Virtuoso

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

A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

To stress or emphasize; intensify

A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.


4. Renegade

To condescend to give or grant

One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

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

A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.


5. Participle

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.

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

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

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


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