Hard Work: Clinched 

I think this term means clutch or sort of like it because I read around the sentence and it said that the Rupublicans clinched the seats for the Senate. I guess it could mean that they got it.

Hard Word: Controversial

I think that it means that it is about his conservative ideas because of the pre-fix and it might mean conservative.
Title: Fizz biz: Do studies paid for by soda industry hide health risks?

Hard Word: Consumption

I think it means that the problems or the stats that are bad. They are talking about how soda has a growing consumption.

Hard Word: metabolic dysfunction

I searched it up and it meant disorders in the bodies with chemical reaction. They were talking about diabetes

Title: The nose knows – NASA to send device to Mars to sniff out signs of life

Hard Word: Martian
I think it means that it means unatural because it is about space and Martian and it might mean about an alien. 

Hard Word: Lidar

I think it is another word for laser because it says a lidar tool. But the article is around a new laser tool to find out new signs of life. Then the next subtopics says Lidar uses laser pluses.

Word:Whigs
Sentence:Will the Republican Party end up disappearing like the Whigs? So first I found some clues, I know the Republican Party is a GOP.  So maybe the Whigs was a political party that went bankrupt!!!

I think this word means to agree on a idea. I read, " Astronomers have converged on a statistical estimate for the number of..."  to figure this out.

Word: Terrestrial
The sentence I read was " Succeeding in the search for the nearest terrestrial planet beyond the solar system has been an experience of a lifetime". This word makes sense because it means related to earth, so I see it as " the nearest planet related to earth  beyond..."

Word: Probe
I think this word means a robotic machine that can handle severe conditions. The sentence I read to figure it out was Proxima b's discovery is fueling new interest in searches for radio- or laser-based messages beamed toward Earth from any technologically talkative aliens on the planet, as well as futuristic proposals to send robotic probes there..

Hard Work: Dreary

At first I thought it said dreamy because it could have fit in the sentence, but I thought it was wrong so I read it again and it was dreary.I read around it and the sentence was, "Then he went boldly to Zeus and begged him to give fire to men, that so they might have a little comfort through the long, dreary months of winter."I read a few times and I noticed that it said long ,dreary so I replaced it with cold and stressful and it worked.

Hard word: venues
 I think it means other aquatic areas such as a pool, a water park etc. I read "These disheartening statistics are based on 84,187 routine inspections of 48,632 public pools and other aquatic venues” 

Hard word: fecal 
I think this word means dangerous pieces of waste/ you know what 
 I read: "Summer’s right around the corner, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is here to remind you that there’s nothing like a dip in a public pool — a place where you might encounter tiny bits of fecal matter"

Hard word: respiratory
I think this word means something bad that can happen to your eyes if something from the pool got into your eyes

Hard Word:  bromine
 It might mean normal.

Title: Lebanon museum display: Thousands of years of art associated with tombs

Hard word: liturgical
I think this means worshiping something

Hard word: mausoleum
I think this means an old artifact

Word: Uganda

To find this word I had to read in the sentence. I soon found that  Uganda was a place... were chimps live.