NIE Home  Lessons: K-4  5-8  9-12   Geo Quiz   Cartoons for the Classroom   Front Page Talking Points    Last Week in the News   Week in History  News Video  Science Audio 
Generate your own quiz 

Select a grade level

 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School

Select a quiz type

 By words    By Definitions

How many questions?

 5  10  15  20 Questions



 

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 

BACKLOT

DEFINITION:
An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor.
The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

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. Bandolier

Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

An ammunition belt, worn over the shoulder, having loops or pockets for cartridges.

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.


2. Strategy

A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.

A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.


3. Xylem

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

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

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.


4. Boycott

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal


5. Aspire

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

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

Self-examination.

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions