— VOA Learning English — Words and Their Stories Source: Voice of America Learning English (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:01Now, the VOA Learning English program, Words and Their Stories.
0:17Today we talk about a color found all throughout nature, green. is also very common in American English. Let's hear Warren Shear read a story about these colorful expressions. Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. Spring and Other Things A greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the 18th century, a green horn had the meaning it has today, a person who is new in a job. About 100 years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American West. Old timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east.
2:09The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country. Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died. The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs. Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion jealousy.
3:28The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play Othello. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else, or that green- eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not. In most places in the world, a green light is a sign to move ahead. A green light on a traffic signal means your car can continue on. In everyday speech, a Green Light means approval to continue with a project. We want you to know we have a greenlight to continue this series next week.
4:43And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories. Don't forget to tune in again for another story about American English expressions. Until next time, I'm Ana Mateo.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.