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. Phloem
► One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.
► To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark
2. Symbiosis
► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.
► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.
► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.
3. Quarantine
► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.
► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.
► To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.
4. Laconic
► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
5. Commemorate
► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night
► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline
► To honor the memory of with a ceremony
► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant
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.