Color Wordwise Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red

The song 'Red Sails in the Sunset' was first published in 1935. The lyrics, from the Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, were inspired by the sails of a yacht he used to see offshore near his home. The music came from a frequent collaborator, Wilhelm Grosz (using the pseudonym Hugh Williams).

The song was first performed as part of a stage show called 'Provincetown Follies', at the Provincetown Playhouse. Subsequent recordings were released in 1935 by Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, Vera Lynn and Mantovani; Louis Armstrong's version came out in 1936.

There have been many more covers, but it was Nat King Cole's 1951 version that became the biggest hit. During the early years of the Beatles, Paul McCartney regularly sang it in live performances, although the group never recorded it.

Answer: White

A white feather has been used as a sign of cowardice (or sometimes pacifism, under circumstances where that was held in equal disesteem) since at least as far back as the 18th century. In World War I a number of women were organised to encourage men to volunteer by publicly shaming them with the presentation of a white feather.

This effort had unintended side effects, including inadvertent pressure put on men who were engaged in what were deemed to be essential civilian duties, and angry responses from soldiers who were home on furlough or recovering from battle injuries!

Answer: Green

Someone with a green thumb has an exceptional ability to cultivate plants. (Someone like me who resignedly accepts gifts of pot plants, knowing their fate has been sealed and they will inevitably die in the near future, may be said to have a black thumb.) Some sources state that the phrase, in the sense we use it today, is of North American origin, and first appeared in print in 1937.

Others, however, consider its roots to go way back to the time of King Edward I (1239-1307), and be quite literal: he was so fond of peas that he gave awards to the serfs who shelled the most peas, gaining green thumbs in the process.

The link between being able to shell peas and grow them remains tenuous.

Answer: Yellow

While most submarines are a silvery colour, because they are made of metal, the Beatles sang of a 'Yellow Submarine', the subject of a song and of an animated movie based on the song. The novelty song, sung by Ringo Starr, appeared on 'Revolver'. The 1968 film has been described as a jukebox musical fantasy adventure comedy film: jukebox musicals use pre-existing popular music, usually from a single group or person; the fantasy adventure element stems from the fact that the action is set in Pepperland, an idyllic undersea spot that is invaded by the Blue Meanies; comedy infuses most scenes.

Answer: Red

The letter C here is standing in for the word sea. The Red Sea, part of the Indian Ocean, is the world's northernmost tropical sea, lying between the northern part of Africa and Asia. Its southern end is considered to be the Bab-el-Mendeb (Gate of Tears) strait between Yemen (on the Arabian Peninsula) and Djibouti and Eritrea (on the Horn of Africa); some consider it extends through the strait until the Gulf of Aden on its south.

The northern end of the Red Sea connects, on either side of the Sinai Peninsula, to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez.

The construction of the Suez Canal in the middle of the 19th century connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and provided a much shorted sea route between Europe and Asia than had previously been possible.

Answer: Green

A greenhouse is a structure designed to allow the growing of plants in areas (or during seasons) which are not warm enough for the process to be successful outdoors. The classic image is a glass structure, which allows sunlight to enter and contribute to the warming of the building's interior, while also retaining that warmth as the lower-frequency infrared rays produced as objects cool do not pass through the glass readily.

This is called the greenhouse effect, a term used to explain why cars get hot when they stand in the sunlight, why the planet Venus has such a hot surface temperature, and why adding carbon dioxide (among other gases) to our atmosphere leads to planetary warming.

Answer: Red

Redwood trees are members of the subfamily Sequoioideae, conifers in the cypress family that include the tallest and heaviest trees in the world. These redwoods belong to one of the two genera that are native to the coastal mountains of northern California and southern Oregon.

There is a third genus, found in China, which is not nearly as large as these, while still being larger than your average tree. Redwoods have been successfully introduced to suitable environments around the globe, including mountainous parts of the Australian state of Victoria.

Answer: Yellow

People may wear jackets of many colours, but a yellowjacket is best avoided, as it is a member of the wasp family (and usually just called a wasp outside of North America). Most of them have black and yellow striped bodies (as might be expected from their name), but some species are black and white, and some have red instead of black on their bodies. All of them are predators, useful in controlling insect pests.

Some members of the genus Vespula are native to Europe, some to North America (where the European imports have also established themselves). Yellowjackets are popular figures to use as mascots for sporting teams, including a number of American colleges such as Georgia Tech.

Answer: Orange

Juices come in many colours, of course, but orange juice is the one in this quiz. Oranges have a fairly high vitamin C content, as well as enough natural sugar to produce a juice that can be drunk without the addition of any sugar, making it a popular breakfast beverage.

However, that high sugar content (close to the level of soft drinks) means that health professionals recommend moderation, and encourage eating the whole orange to retain the fibre content that is lost in the juicing process.

Answer: Purple

The purple martin (Progne subis) is a passerine (perching) bird, the largest member of the swallow family found in North America. Despite the name, they aren't purple; rather, they are a dark blackish-blue, but the way light reflects from the feather surface makes them usually appear to be a shade of blue or purple. Males are coloured all over, while females have light feathers under their body, and a less metallic sheen to the feathers on the top.

They are migratory, breeding in Canada and the northern parts of the USA during the summer, then spending the winter in South America.