What Colour is an Orange? Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

In temperate climates, the peel of oranges never turns orange, but stays green. Cold weather (or treatment with ethylene) is needed to kill the chlorophyll and turn the peel orange. In places like Honduras and Colombia, the peel remains green, even when the fruit is ripe. To people in the US, oranges look the most appealing when they are a deep, vibrant orange colour.

In the US, oranges are green only if they are picked in the fall before the first cold snap or if they are picked early in the spring when the tree is flooded with chlorophyll to nourish the coming new growth. Green oranges will also change colour if they are exposed to ethylene gas which, like the cold, breaks down the chlorophyll in the skin.

Unfortunately, oranges are often dyed as a quick way to get the orange colour that many want.

Answer: Blue

The origin of the use of the colour blue to describe off-colour content is unclear. Some feel it is related to the Puritanical laws prohibiting certain activities on the basis of religion (called blue laws, which most certainly would prohibit this type of film). Others say that strippers originally worked under a blue spotlight and that this is the reason that colour is used.

Answer: Brown

Though people would probably understand you if you said you had black fingers or a black thumb, the expression most often used is "brown thumb", probably because the leaves of a dead or dying plant turn from green (healthy) to brown (in dire straits).

Answer: Crystal Gayle

The song "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" was indeed sung by Crystal Gayle, who (ironically enough) has blue eyes. The song was to have been recorded by Shirley Bassey (who does have brown eyes, but isn't a country singer), but when Crystal got wind of the song, she fought for and won the rights to record it. It was a big hit for her in 1976.

Answer: Pink

The expression "seeing pink elephants" to refer to hallucinations brought on by excessive alcohol use has been common in English since the early 1900s. There is a similar expression in Spanish in which "blue devils" ("diablos azules") are what drunks see when they go overboard. Disney used the image of pink elephants in the movie "Dumbo", when the youthful pachyderm was given water spiked with champagne.

Answer: True

Shakespeare has one of the earliest (if not the earliest) documented uses associating green eyes with jealousy, from "The Merchant of Venice" (1596):


(Portia): "How all the other passions fleet to air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love,
Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy,
In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess.
I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
For fear I surfeit."

Shakespeare continued to use the same image in "Othello" (1604):

(Iago): "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!"

The term is now commonplace in English, and people often describe themselves as being "green with envy".

Answer: Yellow

Roses come in a variety of hues, from white to cream to yellow to all shades of pink, orange and red. If you see black, green or blue petals at a wedding, they are dyed or made of silk. You can tell when a rose petal is not its natural color because the veins stand out more as they absorb chemicals quicker than the rest of the petal.

Answer: Ice fish

The combination of the oxygen-rich waters of the icy Antarctic and the need for the ice fish's blood to act as anti-freeze in the really cold temperatures, has caused this species to evolve and develop colorless blood, the only vertebrates on earth not to have hemoglobin in their blood.

Answer: pink

This expression refers to the fact that some people actually do change color when they are happy--getting warmer and pinker!

Answer: False

There are only 11 states that have officially designated State Colours in the US, all of the others have no official colour. Of those 11, ten of them had blue as one of the official colours! Only Oklahoma has a combination that doesn't include blue (yellow and green). Arizona was the first state to officially adopt colours, blue and gold in 1915. South Carolina adopted indigo blue as its official colour in 2008.