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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 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

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. Nuisance

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

Being without or almost without hope

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.


2. Hieroglyphic

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

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.

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.


3. Participle

Having a backbone or spinal column.

In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.

A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.


4. Repose

The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

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

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.

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


5. Tempo

A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

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

The main character in a drama or other literary work.


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