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. Vacillate
► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.
► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm
► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
► A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
2. Nocturnal
► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night
► Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.
► A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.
► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.
3. Deduction
► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.
► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.
► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
4. Ellipse
► A disorderly commotion or disturbance.
5. Solstice
► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.
► The right or privilege of voting; franchise.
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.