Speak Your Fruits and Vegetables Quiz

Answer: Pod

On the plant, peas grow in pods, long envelopes that contain half a dozen or more peas in a row. Peas next to each other in the pod do look alike, though if you ask me, they're also pretty difficult to tell apart in pans, spoons, or sauces.

Answer: Cherry

This phrasing comes from the practice of topping an ice-cream sundae with a bright red, maraschino cherry. With such a delectable treat at the top, the dessert is as perfect as it can possibly be -- so the cherry is the finishing touch on both the treat and the request.

Children asking a big favor may up the ante anyway; I've heard "sprinkles" (or jimmies or hundreds and thousands) added atop the cherry, as well as the nonsensical-on-ice-cream "powdered sugar".

Answer: A colleague who handled hostile questioning with aplomb

Here, "cool" refers not to temperature or to fashion, but to equanimity under pressure. This businesswoman didn't lose her temper or break a sweat when rivals questioned her ability to deliver; like a refreshing vegetable, she refused to lose her cool. Scientists have yet to determine why cucumbers respond so much more professionally to uncomfortable situations than, say, summer squash.

Answer: Apple

Ideas, corporations, and rituals, as well as people, may be as American as apple pie. It is unclear just what makes apple pies more pro-American than lemon tarts or cranberry muffins, but the notion also turns up in an old joke. Condensed, it goes like this: Ask a Canadian what a Yankee is, and he'll say someone from the US. Ask someone from Atlanta, and she'll say a Northerner. Ask a Bostonian, and he'll say someone from Vermont. Ask a Vermonter, and it's someone who eats apple pie for breakfast!

(There's another version of the idiom out there: "as American as cherry pie." Apples are far more common, though!)

Answer: Beet

When someone prone to blushing is embarrassed, blood rushes to their cheeks and reddens their skin tone. Beets have become the benchmark for the resulting redness, although what these fine root vegetables have to be embarrassed about is anyone's guess.

Answer: It's defective.

A lemon is a major purchase that appeared to work properly when sold, but soon proved to be defective. Maybe the refrigerator burnt itself out; maybe the car engine started knocking two blocks from the lot. "Lemon laws" provide consumers with some recourse if they've purchased a lemon, but it's never a fun experience.

Answer: It's terrible.

This idiom is popularly traced to public performances hundreds of years ago, when audience members were not shy about their opinions and had overripe produce ready to hand. A rotten tomato is used in this image because it's not only less appetizing than a fresh one, but also makes a more satisfying squelch when it lands. Today, the idiom has been appropriated by more lettered critics: the Rotten Tomatoes site collects published movie reviews to give a numerical rating of a film's "freshness".

Answer: "Oh no! What happened?"

This expression is most common in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. If things have gone pear-shaped, they've gone horribly awry: the plan has failed utterly and it's past time to try something new. The origins of this expression, which seems to have come into use in the 1940s or thereabouts, are murky; one popular explanation is that it originally referred to the distorted aerial loops made by fighter pilots who weren't quite successful in their maneuvers.

Answer: Pumpkin

This image seems to come from the tale of Cinderella, a beautiful girl without the resources to go to a ball. Her fairy godmother makes her dream come true by transforming ordinary things into marvelous and useful ones. A drab housedress becomes an elegant ballgown; a pumpkin in the garden becomes a carriage; and mice become the horses to draw it. If Cinderella stays past midnight, however, everything changes back -- and riding a pumpkin home is very slow.

Some guests have been known to claim that they themselves are in danger of turning into pumpkins, but that's a little unlikely.

Answer: He is especially fond of this person.

"The apple of my eye" describes a very precious person or thing, often a child who has caused particular pride. The idiom shows up in several places in the King James Bible, such as Proverbs 7:2, which reads, "Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye."