和颜色有关的18个习惯用语

1. The Council’s new shopping precinct area, built at a cost of $4,000,000, turned out to be a white elephant because people preferred to do their shopping in the more colourful nearby street market.

white elephant 昂贵而无用的东西

2. After the grueling rugby match, half the team were black and blue for the next few days.

black and blue 遍体鳞伤

3. She argued with her daughter till she (the mother) was blue in the face, but the girl still insisted on going to the pop festival.

blue in the face （因大怒）而脸上突然变色

4. After winning $10,000 on the pools, he and his wife painted the town red and got home at dawn after visiting every night-club in the area.

to paint the town red 狂欢，痛饮

5. John’s absolutely browned-off with his job. If he doesn’t change it soon, he’ll go mad.

browned-off 厌烦的，不能再忍受的

6. She received a letter from a solicitor out of the blue telling her that she’d been left $20,000 by a distant relative.

out of the blue 突然地，意外地

7. His wife was a poor sailor, and before the ship was out of Dover Harbour, she suddenly went green and disappeared below deck.

go green 晕船，呕吐

8. When his horse was beaten in a photo-finish by a complete outsider, he saw red.

see red 突然生气，不能控制自己

9. For the first few weeks the pupils got away with blue murder, but the new teacher soon learnt how to control the class, and now she never has any trouble in keeping discipline.

blue murder 大声惊呼，大惊小怪地叫喊

10. A well-known saying which provides support in times of difficulty is: “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

silver lining 一线光明，一线希望

11. The day she was awarded her first-class degree before 2,000 people, including her parents, was a red letter day in her life.

a red letter day 大喜的日子

12. His bank account was 187 in the red and the bank manager insisted that he pay it back within three months.

in the red 负债，赤字

13. A purple patch in a book is any part which is ornate in its literary composition to the point of absurdity.

purple patch (passage) 华而不实的章句

14. He was the firm’s blue-eyed boy and rewarded their faith in him by winning a $200,000 overseas contract.

blue-eyed 受宠爱的

15. White lies are something called social lies. They are lies which can be justified or excused by the motives of the person telling them.

a white lie 不怀恶意的谎言

16. The red tape involved in getting the 5p-piece back from the Post Office which he’d lost in a stamp-machine was so great that he didn’t bother.

red tape 拖拉的公事程序