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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
►The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

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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. Salmonella

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

► Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

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

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

2. Enthusiastic

► To proclaim publicly

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

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

3. Tundra

► Self-examination.

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

► A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

► The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.

4. Spectrum

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

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

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

5. Nuisance

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

► 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

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

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

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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.