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. Vertebrate
► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal
► Having a backbone or spinal column.
► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.
2. Nocturnal
► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night
► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.
► A proportional part or share.
► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.
3. Guerrilla
► An embankment built to prevent flooding
► A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.
4. Laconic
► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.
► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative
5. Sacrifice
► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.
► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
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.