13. “Blue” in names and acronyms – match with the explanations:

1. The Blue Railway	1. one of the two main rivers which join together to form the River Nile proper (the other main river is the White Nile)
2. The Blue Mountains	2. the name of a series of racing cars and speed boats in which the racing drivers (father and son) Malcolm and Donald Campbell set several world speed records over the period 1935—1967
3. Bluebeard	3. names of different British rockets
4. The Blue and the Gray	4. a title (later reinforced by a trophy) given to a liner which holds the speed record for transatlantic crossings in both directions. It was held in succession by the "Mauritania", "Bremen", "Queen Mary" and "United States"
5. Blue Book	5. a) an American medical insurance company. b) a London organization engaged in animal welfare which pro­vides veterinary treatment for the pets of those who cannot afford to pay fees
6. Blue Cross	6. a popular British television programme for chil­dren. It is well known, by both adults and children, for sup­porting children's activities, showing them how to do and make useful things, and encouraging them to raise money for people in need (from "blue peter" — a blue flag with a white square in the middle, flown on a ship to show it is ready to leave port): Blue Peter appeal; a Blue Peter badge
7. Blue Force	7. the first day of the work week
8. Blue Monday	8. a cold wind from the north which brings rap­idly falling temperatures to the Kansas-Oklahoma-Texas re­gion (from the colour of the accompanying clouds)
9. Blue Norther	9. a) an official report printed by the British Gov­ernment, usually the report of a committee (compare "Green Paper", "White Paper"). b) a book of paper with a blue cover which is used in American colleges for writing answers to examination questions.
10. Blue Nun	10. a colloquial term for British police
11. Blue Peter	11. a type of quite sweet white wine which is made in the Rheinhessen area of Germany for export to the United Kingdom; it is popular and not very expensive
12. Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic	12. a wicked character who married and killed one wife after another. He is a character from the Charles Perrault collec­tion. He is a monstrous villain who marries seven women in turn, and warns them not to look behind a certain door of his castle. In­side the room are the corpses of his former wives. Bluebeard kills six wives for their disobedience before one passes the test
13. Blue Steel, Blue Streak, Blue Water	13. (AmE) the Union and Confederate armies in the US Civil War. The Union army wore blue uni­forms, the Confederate army wore gray
14. Bluebird	14. part of the Great Dividing Range, New South Wales, Australia, blocking Sydney from the interior until the crossing in 1813
15. The Blue Nile	15. a private railway line in Sussex, operating with old-style steam engines and coaches. The track runs for five miles from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes, and follows a picturesque route along a track bordered by bluebells in spring

14. Make up little dialogues, using different word combinations with “blue”.

15. Remember other colour idioms with “blue” in your language.

16. What do you know about:

a) “The Blues Brothers” (1980)?

17. Text for written translation and detailed retelling (pay special attention to the words in bold).

Fig. 4 Colour in the eye

The ability of the human eye to distinguish colours is based upon the varying sensitivity of different cells in the retina to light of different wavelengths. The retina contains three types of colour receptor cells, or cones. One type, relatively distinct from the other two, is most responsive to light that we perceive as violet, with wavelengths around 420 nm. (Cones of this type are sometimes called short-wavelength cones, S cones, or, misleadingly, blue cones.) The other two types are closely related genetically and chemically. One of them (sometimes called long-wavelength cones, L cones, or, misleadingly, red cones) is most sensitive to light we perceive as yellowish-green, with wavelengths around 564 nm; the other type (sometimes called middle-wavelength cones, M cones, or, misleadingly, green cones) is most sensitive to light perceived as green, with wavelengths around 534 nm. Light, no matter how complex its composition of wavelengths, is reduced to three colour components by the eye. For each location in the visual field, the three types of cones yield three signals based on the extent to which each is stimulated. These values are sometimes called tristimulus values. The response curve as a function of wavelength for each type of cone is illustrated above. Because the curves overlap, some tristimulus values do not occur for any incoming light combination. For example, it is not possible to stimulate only the mid-wavelength (so-called "green") cones; the other cones will inevitably be stimulated to some degree at the same time. The set of all possible tristimulus values determines the human colour space. It has been estimated that humans can distinguish roughly 10 million different colours. The other type of light-sensitive cell in the eye, the rod, has a different response curve. In normal situations, when light is bright enough to strongly stimulate the cones, rods play virtually no role in vision at all. On the other hand, in dim light, the cones are understimulated leaving only the signal from the rods, resulting in a colourless response. (Furthermore, the rods are barely sensitive to light in the "red" range.) In certain conditions of intermediate illumination, the rod response and a weak cone response can together result in colour discriminations not accounted for by cone responses alone.

Fig. 5 Colour in the brain

The visual dorsal stream (green) and ventral stream (purple) are shown. The ventral stream is responsible for colour perception. While the mechanisms of colour vision at the level of the retina are well-described in terms of tristimulus values (see above), colour processing after that point is organized differently. A dominant theory of colour vision proposes that colour information is transmitted out of the eye by three opponent processes, or opponent channels, each constructed from the raw output of the cones: a red-green channel, a blue-yellow channel and a black-white "luminance" channel. This theory has been supported by neurobiology, and accounts for the structure of our subjective color experience. Specifically, it explains why we cannot perceive a "reddish green" or "yellowish blue," and it predicts the colour wheel: it is the collection of colours for which at least one of the two colour channels measures a value at one of its extremes. The exact nature of colour perception beyond the processing already described, and indeed the status of colour as a feature of the perceived world or rather as a feature of our perception of the world, is a matter of complex and continuing philosophical dispute.