The words below are recognizable in most European languages including Russian. Nevertheless, some of us do not actually know what these words mean and consequently use them neither in Russian nor in English. Let’s improve the situation by enlarging upon this point.

unorthodox = not conventional in belief, behaviour, custom, etc. = related to not holding usual or accepted opinions, esp. on religion, morals, etc. = not generally approved, unconventional (unorthodox medicine). Also note that the Orthodox Church is the Eastern Church with the Patriarch of Constantinople as its head, and includes the national churches of Russia, Romania, Greece, etc. On the other hand, Protestant = an adherent of Protestantism, member or follower of any of the churches separated from the Roman Catholic Church after the Reformation.

apologia = formal defence of opinions or conduct.

euphoria = elation = intense feeling of well-being and excitement = a feeling of great elation, esp. when exaggerated.

The use of these (and other) words is shown by the following excerpts:

• "We've tried all the orthodox ways, yes. But suppose we try the unorthodox. Tommy, let's be adventurers!" [The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie]
• He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the Land of the Saints. [A Study In Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle]
• Part of his wish to wash his hands of life arose from his perception of its contrarious inconsistencies––of Nature's jaunty readiness to support unorthodox social principles. [The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy]
• Nowadays it is possible to say very unorthodox things indeed in an Anglican pulpit unchallenged. There remains no alert doctrinal criticism in the church congregations. [Soul of a Bishop, by H. G. Wells]
• I don't think I've said a word to a single soul. No, not a word. You are the first person to whom I've ever made the admission that even my feelings are at times unorthodox. [Soul of a Bishop, by H. G. Wells]
• It is unorthodox to bypass the channels of command in the army. [Lingvo]
• Well, you begin to understand my breakdown now, I have been copious enough with these apologia. My work got more and more spiritless, my behaviour degenerated, my punctuality declined; I was more and more outclassed in the steady grind by my fellow-students. [Tono-Bungay, by H.G Wells]
• Lord Julian stood still. He was deeply stricken by the other's words, the passionate, eloquent outburst that in a few sharp, clear-cut strokes had so convincingly presented the man's bitter case against humanity, his complete apologia and justification for all that could be laid to his charge. [Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini]
• Former president wrote a detailed apologia, explaining his position [Lingvo]
• They smile at one another, jump around and are generally so psyched that elation becomes their bottom line. [Lingvo]
• To his high elation he found his new boat very fast — in fact, faster than any other boat on the bay or rivers. [Tales of the Fish Patrol, by Jack London]
• It was with feelings of the keenest elation that he hastened home to bear the good news to D'Arnot. At last he was to be of some value in the world. [The Return Of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs]
• I was filled with a strange, mad impulse to be near her. It was not enough merely to assist her, or protect her—I desired to touch her––to take her in my arms. I was astounded at myself. Another thing puzzled me––it was my incomprehensible feeling of elation since I had again seen her. [The Lost Continent, by Edgar Rice Burroughs]

The above two (and some other) idioms can be found in an audio book entitled “Armageddon”. The book is narrated by a professional native English speaker and is available from http://www.audio-knigi.com/ for a small price. The book contains a useful vocabulary and can undoubtedly be associated with superb audio quality. The book will be of great help in developing your English language skills.

Moreover, the book is closely linked to the Bible, in particular to its last book called The Revelation, and will be extremely interesting to those who believe in God or have any sort of religious interests rooted in Christianity. I also hope that the book will encourage others to read and understand at least some parts of the Bible as well as popular biblical writings based on the Bible.

The Bible comprises two collections of books written in different times by different people. The collections are conventionally referred to as “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament” respectively. The Old Testament collection includes 39 books, which can be divided into three groups, namely the Law, the Prophets and the Holy Writings.

The New Testament includes 27 books written by at least eight authors. However, more than half of the total collection was written by four apostles, namely Matthew, John, Peter and Paul. The writings of the New Testament instruct God’s people about how to live in this world. Revelation, being the final book of the New Testament, is different from all the other books. Because of this I have asked Professor Rob Hyndman to write a bit more about the closing book of the Bible to link the present and future of mankind.

A brief introduction to the Bible, the text of the Bible itself and some maps can be found at

http://www.wbtc.com/articles/downloads/english_downloads_main.html

This version of the Bible was created to meet the special needs of the deaf. People who can hear mainly learn English through oral conversations. However, the deaf, as well as people who learn English as a foreign language (such as us), often do not have the advantage of being able to practise their verbal communication. This limited experience with the spoken language creates problems that the aforementioned categories of people face when trying to read with understanding. Consequently, this version of the Bible is useful for people studying English as a foreign language.

In any case, analysing different translations is very productive with respect to developing your English proficiency level. You can also compare two different English translations with your Russian version of the Bible to make your own judgement about what is the main thought that God wants you to understand. Statements from the Bible are normally referred to through a simple and unique notation, so that it is very easy to locate the same statement written in a slightly different way, for example:

• He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. [Proverbs 19:17]. (Taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.)
• Giving money to poor people is like loaning it to the Lord. The Lord will pay you back for being kind to them. [Proverbs 19:17]. (Taken from the Holy Bible: Easy-to-Read Version. © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center, Inc., as suggested by the above link.)

You can judge independently which translation is closer to the original meaning (or to a Russian version of the Bible you have). However, reading additional materials written by people who have invested many years of their lives to improve their understanding of the Bible can certainly be helpful for all of us. In this context, a very useful book is The Way of Life written by eight people and edited by Rob Hyndman. The book is fully available on-line in pdf format at

http://www-personal.buseco.monash.edu.au/~hyndman/bible/way/ This site also gives details of how to order printed copies. An html version is at http://www.thechristadelphians.org/btcd/BTCD/htm/way/ .

The back cover of the book says:

For centuries the Bible has endured as a dynamic and powerful source of truth for all humanity. "The Way of Life" is a modern introductory textbook to Bible teaching. It covers the first principles of the gospel and how believers ought to live. Becoming a disciple of Jesus involves believing the Truth and living the Way, and this book teaches both aspects of discipleship in an integrated manner. Primarily intended to be used in a group environment encouraging interactive discussion, the chapters include class activities, discussion questions, homework and suggested further reading.

A few additional comments from Rob Hyndman:

This book is quite different from anything else around in several ways. First, it is very Bible based. Every chapter has dozens of references to Bible teaching, and nothing is said without carefully providing biblical support. Second, it covers both Christian doctrine and Christian living. Most books cover one or the other. I believe they are so closely linked that you can't separate them. So in this book we explore Bible teaching concerning both aspects of what it means to be Christian. Third, the doctrinal perspective is strongly biblical and rather unorthodox. The writers believe that the true gospel can only be found in the Bible, and not in subsequent church teaching.

There are also a number of interesting leaflets written by Rob and available from his web site. One of them is entitled “Bible teaching on managing your money” and available here:

http://www-personal.buseco.monash.edu.au/~hyndman/bible/financebooklet.html

The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible, and the final written message of Jesus to his followers. It was given in a series of dramatic visions to the apostle John while he was in prison on the Isle of Patmos —just off the coast of modern Turkey in the Aegean Sea. Most scholars date the book to AD96, when John must have been at least 85 years old.

Revelation describes amazing prophetic visions involving strange beasts, battles and places, and representing various events future to John. The visions are highly symbolic and reveal the corruption of the church, the judgement of the wicked, and the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Despite all the destruction and punishment portrayed in the visions, the book finishes with a description of the final triumph of Jesus and the reward of righteous people in God’s kingdom on earth.

One verse in Revelation has become very well-known, even if the rest of the book is a mystery to most people (Christians included). Revelation 16:16 describes the place of the final battle of the nations against Jesus as “Armageddon”. Most scholars think this refers to the Mount of Megiddo, a small hill in the Jezreel valley in central Israel. This has been the site of dozens of battles in the past, involving Egyptian pharaohs, Roman generals, Islamic forces, the Crusaders, Napoleon, and (more recently), Israelis and Arabs. Revelation predicts that there will be at least one more battle there, but this one will involve Jesus himself who will defeat the combined forces of the nations against him before establishing his worldwide kingdom on earth. This will be a time of peace, prosperity and righteousness.

The recent novel “Armageddon”, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, has sparked a great deal of renewed interest in Bible teaching on the return of Jesus to earth. Unfortunately, the book does not always reflect Bible teaching accurately. Therefore, I recommend that anyone reading the book, and the others in the series, also check for themselves Bible teaching on the return of Jesus. A good place to start (and much simpler than Revelation) is Matthew 24. Chapters 42-45 of The Way of Life (web address is above) provide a useful summary of Bible teaching on the subject.

In American English you may correctly use “excuse me” instead of “sorry”. Consequently, you have only a slim chance of being mistaken with this. Both words perfectly match the Russian “izvi’nite”, which we use both before and after apologising. British people say “Excuse me” before interrupting or disturbing someone and say “Sorry” after doing so. Americans also use “Excuse me” to apologise after disturbing someone. That’s the main difference. “I beg your pardon” is rather a formal way of saying sorry. People in Australia tend to follow the British on this.

“Sorry?” as well as “What?” and “I beg your pardon?” are used when asking people to repeat. “Excuse me, could you repeat please?” is also used either by foreigners (such as us) or by very polite people (again such as us). Standard English also deals with simple imperatives like “say it again.”

Yes, you can. Note that doing everything by the book does not give you much space for creativity. However, it is unlikely that you will be the first to say this. Spike Milligan is attributed with the following monologue: “How long I was in the army?” “Five foot eleven.” Using foot instead of feet here is probably akin using pound instead of pounds when counting money in the UK. One foot is equal to 12 inches and one inch is equal to 2.54 cm. Consequently, “Five foot eleven”= 5*12*2.54+11*2.54=180.34 cm, which is, indeed, rather a tall individual.

Below are some quotations related to science and religion:

1. There are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies wholly beyond us and completely outside the province of science. [Carl Gauss]
2. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance — but for us, not for God [Albert Einstein]
3. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. [Galileo Galilei]
4. The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, of the merchants a merchant. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
5. I want to know God's thoughts...the rest are details. [ Albert Einstein ]
6. I believe in the sun even though it is slow in rising. I believe in you without realizing. I believe in rain though there are no clouds in the sky. I believe in truth even though people lie. I believe in peace though sometimes I am violent. I believe in God even though he is silent. [Unknown]
7. There is another version of the above quotation (or a similar quotation), which was found written on a cellar in Cologne and is thought to have been written by a Jew who hid there during World War II:
   I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
   I believe in love even when I feel it not.
   I believe in God even when he is silent.

The quotation about the sun and rain made me recall another related one from an unknown author:

“It takes both the sun and the rain to make a beautiful rainbow.”

Now, we provide a question for our subscribers, in particular people interested in science or religion or in both at once (such as me and Rob):

Is it possible to establish the exact or approximate age of the rainbow?

To avoid a possible misunderstanding, two widely accepted definitions of the rainbow are given below:

• the rainbow is an arch of colours formed in the sky by reflection, refraction, and dispersion of the sun's rays in falling rain or in spray or mist.
• the rainbow is a bow-shaped display in the sky of the colours of the spectrum, caused by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays through rain or mist.

If you managed to support your answer with a strong argument, then the second question follows:

Could it have been born earlier? Or were some ingredients missing prior to that birthday of the beautiful rainbow?

I hope there is no need to give definitions of the sun and rain here. Both religion-based and science-based answers are accepted and equally treated at advenglishplus@mail.ru. Feel free to write in Russian but English is clearly preferable.

Now, let me take my leave. We wish all the best to our more than thirty thousand subscribers and also to those who will eventually join us with your help. This issue was prepared jointly by Andrey Kostenko and Rob Hyndman.