I bet you’ll pass this colorful quiz with flying colors

Colors color our language — and that is not just a pigment of my imagination. Think of the words we use to describe how we feel. At various times we are green with envy, gray with exhaustion, red with embarrassment or white with rage. We can fall into a black mood, a purple passion or a blue funk. When things start looking up, we feel in the pink and are tickled pink.

Some words describe both a color and an object at the same time, including amber, bronze, cardinal, ebony, emerald, gold, green, honey, lavender, ivory, jade, lemon, lilac, lime, olive, orange, peach, periwinkle, plum, rose, ruby, salmon, sapphire, silver, slate, tangerine, teal, topaz, violet and wheat.

Even the animal world gets painted by the coloring of human imagination:

Have you ever owned a white elephant? Before you shake your head no, remember that nowadays the expression white elephant means an object of some worth that nobody else seems to want, like a huge, out-of-style couch or a pedal-driven sewing machine.

White elephant looks back to the albino elephants, once considered sacred in Siam (now Thailand). These creatures were so rare that each one born became automatically the property of the king and was not permitted to work. When a subject incurred the king ’s displeasure, the angry monarch would bestow as a gift one of his white elephants. The enormous appetite and utter uselessness of the animal would soon plunge the “gifted” man into financial ruin.

This tale is anything but a red herring. The original red herrings were strong-smelling fish that the fox hunters of Old England dragged across the fox’s trail to confuse the hounds and give the quarry a sporting chance. Today the meaning of red herring has been broadened to signify a misleading statement that diverts our attention from the real issues.

Here’s a golden opportunity for you to show your true colors by ranging over the rainbow coalition of hues that color many everyday expressions.

In the colorful quiz that follows, complete each phrase with a color:

1. _____mail; 2. a bolt from the _____ ; 3. a _____horn;

4. a _____-bellied coward; 5. _____grass music;

6. good as _____ ; 7. true _____ ; 8. a _____ eminence

9. once in a _____ moon; 10. the _____ carpet treatment;

11. singing the _____s; 12. caught _____-handed;

13. _____ prose; 14. a _____ lining; 15. an ice cream-covered _____ie; 16. _____ tape; 17. _____-colored glasses; 18. in the _____light; 19. beaten _____ and _____; 20. People who hallucinate are said to see _____ elephants;

21. The committee gave her proposal the _____ light;

22. _____en oldies; 23. the _____ sheep of the family;

24. a _____-letter day; 25. _____bloods; 26. a _____ thumb;

27. a _____neck; 28. a _____guard; 29. paint the town _____ ;

30. talking a _____ streak;

31. Silence is _____en; 32. to _____wash the truth;

33. to _____ bag it; 34. Off-color jokes are called _____ jokes;

35. _____ie points; 36. _____ journalism; 37. When a business makes a profit, it is in the _____; 38. When a business loses money, it is in the _____; 39. _____ matter; 40. A woman with intellectual or literary interests is called a _____stocking;

41. a _____ cent; 42. _____ as grass; 43. _____ magic is evil magic; 44. _____ magic is good magic; 45. The boss is so angry that she’s seeing _____; 46. _____ laws; 47. _____-chip stocks; 48. a _____ area; 49. a _____shoe law firm; 50. I hope you’re tickled _____ by how well you’ve answered these questions.

Answers

1. black; 2. blue; 3. green; 4. yellow; 5. blue; 6. gold; 7. blue;

8. gray; 9. blue; 10. red;

11. blue; 12. red; 13. purple; 14. silver; 15. brown; 16. red;

17. rose; 18. lime; 19. black/blue; 20. pink;

21. green; 22. gold; 23. black; 24. red; 25. blue; 26. green;

27. red; 28. black; 29. red; 30. blue;

31. gold; 32. white; 33. brown; 34. blue; 35. brown;

36. yellow; 37. black; 38. red; 39. gray; 40. blue;

41. red; 42. green; 43. black; 44. white; 45. red; 46. blue;

47. blue; 48. gray; 49. brown; 50. pink.