Show us your true colours! - Colour Idioms Part 2

There are lots of colour idioms in English, and in a previous lesson we looked at 10 of them. Here are a few more for you to learn and practise.

Colour idioms and their definitions:

(to) catch red handed: To catch a person in the middle of doing something wrong, or committing a crime.

golden opportunity: An amazing opportunity that you only have once chance to take.

out of the blue: Something very unexpected.

rose coloured glasses: To be very optimistic about everything

true colours: Somebody’s true/real character.

Red tape: When a lot of official documents and bureaucracy are involved in doing something.

White elephant: Something that is very expensive and difficult to maintain

Now choose the correct idiom to complete these sentences:

• 1. Ryan was offered a job which will pay double his salary and he’ll work less hours, it’s a _____
  
  red tape
  golden opportunity
  true colour
  
  
• 2. After the World Cup, that football stadium is going to be _____ to take care of. Was it worth it?
  
  caught red handed
  a white elephant
  out of the blue
  
  
• 3. Martha sees everything through _____ so she doesn’t realise that her boyfriend is a liar.
  
  red tape
  true colours
  rose coloured glasses
  
  
• 4. It takes a long time to fill in all the forms for my driving license. All this _____ makes me frustrated.
  
  out of the blue
  red tape
  golden opportunity
  
  
• 5. He was stealing from the cash register when the shop owner walked in and _____.
  
  caught him a white elephant
  caught him red handed
  saw his true colours
  
  
• 6. He was talking to me at the party, and I really saw his _____ I never knew he had such a kind character.
  
  out of the blue
  white elephant
  true colours
  
  
• 7. I was talking to her about the weather, and ____ she told me she was going to pack her bags and leave her job.
  
  red handed
  golden opportunity
  out of the blue