Sorting the Rainbow: Yellow, Blue, Red or Green? Quiz

Answer: Yellow/Gold

The gold medal is the highest medal in the Olympic Games, given to the first-ranking athlete. This applies to the modern Olympics, since in the ancient ones the trophy for the winner was a wreath from Zeus' sacred olive tree.

Answer: Yellow/Gold

The song I am referring to is "Big Yellow Taxi". It was written and composed by Joni Mitchell and released by her in 1970. Mitchell herself stated that she wrote it while on Hawaii, inspired by a taxi that had carried her to her hotel and by the scenery she saw from her hotel room window in the next morning.

Answer: Yellow/Gold

The Yellow Emperor is a figure of questionable historicity, but of high repute in traditional Chinese historiography. Many important inventions were attributed to him, such as the first forms of writing, the Chinese lunar calendar, boating and even the Taoist religion (although, at least for the latter, we know it most probably isn't true, since it was Laozi who composed the core Taoist texts).

Answer: Yellow/Gold

The battle I am referring to is the battle of Zhovti Vody, in Ukraine. The term "Zhovti Vody" means "Yellow Waters". The battle was fought in the earliest phase of the Uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Hetman of Ukraine, against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which increasingly discriminated against his people on ethnic, religious and social grounds.

The battle was a resounding Ukrainian victory.

Answer: Blue

In J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, Alatar and Pallando are the two blue wizards. They were part of the Istari, the five Maiar sent to Middle-Earth in human shape during the Third Age by the Valar to help the Free Peoples combat the Dark Lord Sauron. The other three Istari were Saruman the White, Radagast the Brown and, of course, Gandalf the Grey (later Gandalf the White). Alatar and Pallando went to the East and, most likely, failed in their mission, although they are said to have founded cults that persisted until after the downfall of Sauron.

Answer: Blue

"Blue Bayou" was written by Orbison and Joe Melson in 1961. Orbison released it two years later, scoring a major hit. Equally famous, however, is Linda Ronstadt's 1977 version of the song.

Answer: Blue

During the American Civil War, the soldiers of the US wore blue uniforms, while their opponents, the Confederates, wore gray. Therefore, the term "bluecoat" arose for Union soldiers. "The Blue and the Gray" was also a TV miniseries about the Civil War that aired on CBS in 1982.

Answer: Blue

The question is an allusion to the term "bluestocking", which arose in the 18th century to denote an intellectual woman. The reason was the fact that there was a society of educated women, appellated the "Blue Stockings Society", led by the social reformer Elizabeth Montagu.

Answer: Red

The Battle of Balaclava was fought by Britain against Russia during the Crimean War, in 1854. Both the Thin Red Line (the defeat of a Russian force by 500 British Highlanders) and the Charge of the Light Brigade (a suicidal assault against massive Russian artillery) happened during that battle. Ultimately, the battle was indecisive, costing each side just over 600 lives.

Answer: Red

The red maple leaf is a core element in the flag Canada adopted in 1965. The maple leaf first became a Canadian symbol in the early 18th century, when French settlers along the St. Lawrence River used it as their mark.

Answer: Red

In the TV series "The Mentalist", the protagonist Patrick Jane has as his aim to find and eliminate the serial killer Red John, who has killed Jane's wife and daughter. To achieve this, Patrick cooperates with and consults for the California Bureau of Investigation, whose Serial Crimes unit is headed by Teresa Lisbon.

Answer: Red

The fairy tale is, of course, Little Red Riding Hood, the little girl going to the forest to bring food to her ailing grandmother. There are interesting parallels with several European mythologies.

For example, the Greek author Pausanias recorded that a boxer called Euthymos once slew a malevolent spirit dressed in a wolf's skin who was raping a girl named Pyrrha ("fiery red") and married her.

The Roman poet Horace also wrote about children being rescued from the stomach of the malevolent creature Lamia (although he refers to boys, not girls).

Finally, the dialogue between the girl and the wolf pretending to be the grandmother bears similarities to the Norse Thrymsvida, where the giant Thrym is perplexed about the unladylike eyes of "Freyja", who is, in fact, Thor masquerading as the goddess.

Answer: Green

US dollars are frequently called "greenbacks". This began during the American Civil War, when the Treasury Department printed emergency paper money in green and black ink.

Answer: Green

The song I am referring to is "Green, Green Grass of Home". Although the Tom Jones version is the most famous, it is not the original. The song was written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr. in 1965 and first recorded by Johnny Darrell.

Answer: Green

In G.R.R. Martin's fictional world, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were once engulfed in a war of succession between two Targaryen half-siblings, Princess Rhaenyra and King Aegon II. Because Aegon's personal standard was a green dragon, his supporters were known as "The Greens", whereas Rhaenyra's were known as "The Blacks".

Answer: Green

The Green Man is usually described or depicted as a bearded man disgorging vegetation either solely from the mouth or from each orifice of the head. Another variation is the foliate head. For all the pagan origins of the motif, it has been incorporated in the adorning of Christian churches, like the Bamberg cathedral in Germany.