Resources for Bay Area
Teachers and Students
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. Usurp
► Deception by trickery or sophistry.
► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.
► To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.
2. Suffragist
► Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.
► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.
3. Xenophobe
► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.
► To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.
► To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.
4. Fatuous
► Lacking social polish; tactless.
► Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.
5. Acumen
► Cheerfully confident; optimistic.
► Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:
► Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.
► Having one’s true identity concealed.