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[00:08.13]Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.

[00:16.83]Today we talk about a color found all throughout nature - green!

[00:24.27]Green is also very common in American English.

[00:28.53]Let's hear Warren Scheer read a story about these colorful expressions!

[00:35.49]Green is an important color in nature.

[00:40.79]It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees.

[00:46.32]It is also the color of most growing plants.

[00:51.38]Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing.

[00:58.43]Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished.

[01:06.73]For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation.

[01:17.89]In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed.

[01:28.76]A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle.

[01:38.54]By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today - a person who is new in a job.

[01:50.66]About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west.

[01:59.03]Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east.

[02:08.59]The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country.

[02:16.31]Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb.

[02:26.34]The expression comes from the early 1900s.

[02:30.73]A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well.

[02:41.81]You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

[02:53.17]The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains.

[03:05.20]The new plants produced much larger crops.

[03:09.90]The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

[03:18.98]Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy.

[03:28.18]The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space.

[03:33.77]It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play "Othello."

[03:44.23]It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants.

[03:53.88]A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else.

[04:04.15]Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.

[04:13.20]In most places in the world, a green light is a sign to move ahead.

[04:16.53]A green light on a traffic signal means your car can continue on.

[04:27.72]In everyday speech, a green light means approval to continue with a project.

[04:34.74]We want you to know we have a green light to continue this series next week.

[04:42.38]And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.

[04:47.43]Don't forget to tune in again for another story about American English expressions.

[04:54.31]Until next time!

[04:55.36]I'm Anna Matteo.