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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 

DONNED

DEFINITION:
To have put something on, as in clothing or hats.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Quarterback Matthew Stafford donned his neoprene undergarment.
The Los Angeles Times, 01/19/2026

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. Tundra

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

To condescend to give or grant

To cringe in fear

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


2. Ellipse

Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

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

An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.


3. Toxin

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

Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.


4. Lichen

One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.

Relating to a system of writing, such as that of ancient Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or sounds or a combination of meaning and sound.

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


5. Zoology

The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.

Being without or almost without hope

A rebirth or revival.

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


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