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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 

ADVERSE

DEFINITION:
Having a negative or harmful effect on something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
There was no evidence of “any adverse or harmful chemical or other exposures,” he wrote.
The Boston Herald, 06/15/2026

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. Despondent

The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,

Being without or almost without hope

A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness


2. Fallacy

Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

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

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.


3. Antibody

The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

Any of various relatively small sailing or motor-driven vessels used for pleasure cruises or racing.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


4. Inference

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.


5. Guerrilla

A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

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


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