Opacity on Inline Elements

The following element is a span with opacity set to 50%: Hi, I should be semi-transparent! It should not be red, because no other styles have been set.

This element should be semi-transparent and should thus let the cats be visible even though the background of this element is white. Yes, BTW, this element's background should white. Not red.

(The preceeding paragraph should be semi-transparent and should thus let the cats be visible even though the background of that element is white. That's right, the element's background should white. Not red.)