The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is anunnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from highwaves may look very green.

對于樹和草來說綠色是它們最自然的顏色。但對于人來說就不一樣了。如果有人覺得胃不舒服她可以說她感覺有點“綠”(胃不舒服)。坐船的乘客如果暈船，你也可以說他看起來很“綠”(臉色不好)。

Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say heis green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.

有時，當(dāng)我們的朋友有了一些我們沒有的東西時，比如說一輛跑的飛快的新車，我們可能會感覺心煩意亂。我們可以說那個人就是妒忌地“變綠”了(眼紅了)。有些人眼紅朋友美元多，或者說是美鈔多。美元之所以又叫“綠背”(美鈔)，是因為美鈔的背面是綠色的。

The color black is used often in expressions. People describea day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at onetime, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.

黑色也常常出現(xiàn)在各種表達(dá)中。人們把諸事不利的一天叫做黑色的一天。發(fā)生重大災(zāi)難的一天通常也被記作黑色紀(jì)念日。現(xiàn)在，列黑名單是不合法的。但是曾經(jīng)有一段時間，有些企業(yè)會拒絕雇用黑名單上的人，因為其屬于不受歡迎的組織。

In some cases, colors describe a situation. A brown out is an expression for are duction in electric power. Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity. The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area. Black outs were common during World War Two. Officials would order all lights in a city turned off to make it difficult for enemy planes to find a target in the dark of night.

有時候，顏色還能用來描繪一個場景。徹底變棕色了(弄暗)這個表達(dá)的意思是電力不足。通常用電量超負(fù)荷時就會出現(xiàn)電力不足。此時電力系統(tǒng)就不能給所在地區(qū)提供電能了。在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)時燈火管制常常發(fā)生。政府官員會下令所有人關(guān)掉電燈以希望敵軍的飛機(jī)在一片漆黑的城市中找不到襲擊目標(biāo)。