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.
Words in the News Quiz
5 High 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. Expurgate
► To increase the positive charge or valence of (an element) by removing electrons.
► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.
2. Abjure
► Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
► To renounce under oath; forswear.
► Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.
3. Nomenclature
► Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.
► A system of names used in an art or science:
► A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
► Having a bad disposition; surly.
4. Usurp
► Having a bad disposition; surly.
► Deception by trickery or sophistry.
► Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.
► To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.
5. Plasma
► The iron-containing respiratory pigment in red blood cells of vertebrates.
► To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.
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