[00:00.10]Now, the VOA Special English
[00:15.31]program, Words and Their Stories.
[00:19.50]Green is an important color
[00:25.01]in nature.
[00:26.21]It is the color of grass
[00:28.70]and the leaves on trees.
[00:31.24]It is also the color
[00:33.88]of most growing plants.
[00:36.22]Sometimes, the word green
[00:40.65]means young, fresh and growing.
[00:45.07]Sometimes, it describes
[00:47.91]something that is not yet
[00:50.30]ripe or finished.
[00:52.39]For example, a greenhorn
[00:56.67]is someone who has no expereince,
[00:59.85]who is new to a situation.
[01:03.04]In the fifteenth century,
[01:06.27]a greenhorn was a young cow
[01:09.46]or ox whose horns
[01:11.45]had not yet developed.
[01:13.24]A century or so later,
[01:16.54]a greenhorn was a soldier
[01:18.88]who had not yet had
[01:21.31]any experience in battle.
[01:23.67]By the eighteenth century,
[01:28.57]a greenhorn had the meaning
[01:30.27]it has today
[01:31.81]- a person who is new in a job.
[01:35.10]About one hundred years ago,
[01:39.63]greenhorn was a popular expression
[01:42.96]in the American west.
[01:45.00]Old-timers used it to describe
[01:48.58]a man who had just arrived
[01:50.78]from one of the big cities back east.
[01:54.32]The greenhorn lacked the skills
[01:58.10]he would need to live
[01:59.64]in the hard, rough country.
[02:02.23]Someone who has the ability
[02:06.61]to grow plants well is said
[02:09.40]to have a green thumb.
[02:11.89]The expression comes from
[02:14.88]the early nineteen hundreds.
[02:16.87]A person with a green thumb
[02:20.75]seems to have a magic touch
[02:23.49]that makes plants grow quickly and well.
[02:26.97]You might say that the woman
[02:30.16]next door has a green thumb
[02:32.35]if her garden continues to grow long
[02:36.07]after your plants have died.
[02:38.00]The Green Revolution is the name
[02:43.29]given some years ago to the development
[02:46.52]of new kinds of rice and other grains.
[02:50.01]The new plants produced
[02:53.19]much larger crops.
[02:54.93]The Green Revolution
[02:57.82]was the result of hard work
[02:59.51]by agricultural scientists
[03:01.76]who had green thumbs.
[03:04.60]Green is also the color
[03:08.84]used to describe
[03:10.38]the powerful emotion, jealousy.
[03:13.51]The green-eyed monster
[03:16.00]is not a frightening creature
[03:18.05]from outer space.
[03:19.40]It is an expression used
[03:21.64]about four hundred years ago
[03:23.63]by British writer William Shakespeare
[03:27.06]in his play "Othello."
[03:29.91]It describes the unplesant
[03:32.45]feeling a person has when someone
[03:36.68]has something he wants.
[03:38.62]A young man may suffer from
[03:41.90]the green-eyed monster
[03:43.39]if his girlfriend begins going out
[03:46.28]with someone else.
[03:47.72]Or, that green-eyed monster
[03:50.91]may affect your friend if you
[03:53.65]get a pay raise and she does not.
[03:56.83]In most places in the world,
[04:00.61]a green light is a signal
[04:03.15]to move ahead.
[04:04.74]A green light on a traffic signal
[04:08.13]means your car can continue on.
[04:11.11] In everyday speech,
[04:13.55]a green light means approval
[04:16.44]to continue with a project.
[04:18.78]We want you to know
[04:21.37]we have a green light to
[04:23.60]continue this series next week.
[04:26.39](MUSIC)
[04:36.84]This VOA Special English program,
[04:41.48]Words and Their Stories,
[04:43.98]was written by Marilyn Christiano.
[04:47.36]I'm Warren Scheer.