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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.
This Week's Word In The News 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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

The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.

To proclaim publicly

Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.


2. Toxin

A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.

The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.


3. Hologram

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.


4. Introspection

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

Self-examination.


5. Gargoyle

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

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

A rebirth or revival.

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


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