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. Quandary
► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.
► Being without or almost without hope
► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.
► The main character in a drama or other literary work.
2. Mutation
► The main character in a drama or other literary work.
► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation
► An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.
► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.
3. Laconic
► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
► Having a backbone or spinal column.
► A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.
► A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.
4. Boisterous
► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline
5. Light-Year
► The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.
► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
► One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.
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.