Today’s color of choice is white, in what will hopefully become a mini series on idioms and color in the English language.

今天簡單介紹下白色，希望可以作為英語顏色習語方面的一個小專題。

(1) raise (or wave) a white flag

Meaning: to indicate that you have been defeated and you want to give up

意思：暗示你被打敗了，你愿意放棄。

Sample Sentence: After we captured them, they had to raise a white flag.

例句：當我們抓住他們后，他們不得不舉手投降。

Pop Culture Reference: Pop singer Dido references the symbolism represented in this idiom in her song “White Flag,” singing: “..and I won’t put my hands up and surrender. There will be no white flag above my door…”

流行文化推薦：流行歌手蒂朵在她的歌曲”白旗“中采用了這個習語的象征主義手法，歌中唱到：”…我不會舉起雙手投降。在我門前絕不會有白旗飄起…“

(2) white-tie event/affair

Meaning: an event that requires guests to wear formal dress such as men wearing white bow ties with formal evening attire

意思：要求客人穿著正裝的場合，例如男人著正式晚禮服，帶白色蝴蝶結領結。

Sample Sentence: There was a white-tie wedding ceremony last week which I had to attend.

例句：上周我不得不參加一個白色領結結婚典禮。

Pop Culture Reference: Band names are known for being creative or including play on words. The pop/electronica band The White Tie Affair chose to name themselves with this idiom.

流行文化推薦：以創新風格聞名或包含雙關語的樂隊名。流行搖滾/電子樂隊The White Tie Affair就是以這個習語命名的。

(3) white elephant.

Meaning: a useless, an unwanted possession that often costs money to maintain.

意思：無用的，不需要的累贅物，通常會花費很多錢來維護它。

Sample Sentence: Your car is a white elephant, as it often breaks down, causing you too much expenditure.

例句：你的車就是個累贅，經常拋錨給你帶來那么多花銷。

Pop culture reference: As one alternative to the Western Christmas gift exchange tradition of “Secret Santa,” a White Elephant gift exchange includes a group of family, friends, or coworkers each of whom gets one wrapped gift. Staying true to the idiom’s meaning, the gifts are usually inexpensive, humorous, or used items from home, seeking to provide entertainment for those involved rather than value.

流行文化推薦：作為西方圣誕節Secret Santa(抽簽交換禮物)的一個傳統備選方案，"a White Elephant" 禮物交換是指在家人，朋友或同事之間進行的一種禮物交換游戲，每個人都會得到一個包裹好的禮物。而說到這個禮物習語，其實它原指便宜的，有趣的或家中用過的物品而并非有價值的物品，作為禮物送給對方以達到娛樂效果。

(4) white lie

Meaning: a harmless or small lie told to be polite or to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.

意思：一個沒有惡意的或小的謊言，謊言的目的是為了禮貌或避免傷害某人的情感。

Sample Sentence: He told a white lie when his father asked where he was going.

例句：當他爸爸問他要去哪兒時，他撒了一個善意的謊言。

Pop Culture Reference: The popular TV series Breaking Bad has gained so many fans across the world that some have decided to craft special beers in honor of the protagonist Walter White who told many white (and perhaps even more unwhite) lies throughout the show. The India white ale beer is a play on words in itself, named Walt’s White Lie.

流行文化推薦：流行電視節目《絕命毒師》在全世界獲得眾多粉絲熱捧，劇中的主人公沃爾特.懷特由于講了太多善意(也許更多的是非善意)的謊言，以至于一些粉絲決定為其特制一種啤酒以示慶祝。印度白啤酒這個名字本身就是一種文字游戲，名為沃爾特懷特的謊言。

(5) white as a sheet

Meaning: pale

意思：蒼白

Sample Sentence: Jane was as white as a sheet because of the illness she had suffered for months.

例句：由于數月病痛折磨，簡的臉色面如白紙。

Pop Culture Reference: In the poem Song of Myself, in the famous poetry collection Leaves of Grass, the great Walt Whitman writes the line: “The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet…”

流行文化推薦：在著名詩集《佰草集》中有一首詩歌叫做《自己》，偉大的詩人沃爾特·惠特曼曾在詩中這樣寫道：“船長站在甲板上，面色蒼白地發著冷酷的指令。