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.

对于树和草来说绿色是它们最自然的颜色。但对于人来说就不一样了。如果有人觉得胃不舒服她可以说她感觉有点“绿”(胃不舒服)。坐船的乘客如果晕船，你也可以说他看起来很“绿”(脸色不好)。

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.

有时，当我们的朋友有了一些我们没有的东西时，比如说一辆跑的飞快的新车，我们可能会感觉心烦意乱。我们可以说那个人就是妒忌地“变绿”了(眼红了)。有些人眼红朋友美元多，或者说是美钞多。美元之所以又叫“绿背”(美钞)，是因为美钞的背面是绿色的。

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.

黑色也常常出现在各种表达中。人们把诸事不利的一天叫做黑色的一天。发生重大灾难的一天通常也被记作黑色纪念日。现在，列黑名单是不合法的。但是曾经有一段时间，有些企业会拒绝雇用黑名单上的人，因为其属于不受欢迎的组织。

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.

有时候，颜色还能用来描绘一个场景。彻底变棕色了(弄暗)这个表达的意思是电力不足。通常用电量超负荷时就会出现电力不足。此时电力系统就不能给所在地区提供电能了。在第二次世界大战时灯火管制常常发生。政府官员会下令所有人关掉电灯以希望敌军的飞机在一片漆黑的城市中找不到袭击目标。