On War and Peace

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. Albert Einstein — Я не только пацифист, но воинствующий пацифист. Я готов бороться за мир. Ничто не закончится войной, если люди сами откажутся идти на войну. Альберт Эйнштейн

If there is another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans. Otto von Bismarck — Если в Европе будет еще одна война, то она произойдет из-за какой-нибудь проклятой глупой вещи на Балканах. Отто фон Бисмарк

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. Dwight D. Eisenhower — Я думаю, что люди так сильно хотят мира, что в один из этих дней правительству было бы лучше отступить и позволить им иметь его. Дуайт Д. Эйзенхауэр
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Kevin Costner in the film The Bodyguard

Have you seen Kevin Costner in the film The Bodyguard? His character in the film, Frank Farmer, is a professional bodyguard who got his training in the Secret Service. Before he hired himself to protect Rachel Marron (Whitney Huston) he had worked for President Reagan. He still blames himself for the fact that Ronald Reagan got shot.
Altogether, four American presidents have been assassinated and attempts have been made on the lives of others. The first president to be killed was Abraham Lincoln. He was shot while attending the theatre in Washington. James Garfield was shot a few months after his inauguration and died at the age of forty-nine. William McKinley was killed in Buffalo, New York in 1901. John Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas in 1963.
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One wise man said that no man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. True, isn’t it? However, we sometimes realise, to our great astonishment, that the knowledge of the language is not enough. Every country has its customs. Different nations can behave differently in the same situations. Let’s be polite travellers. Let’s respect the customs of the country we are in. Let’s not forget the proverb: “When in Rome do as the Romans do.»
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English Language of Communication

(What experts think about it)
THE LANGUAGE
(By G. Mikes)
When I arrived in England I thought I knew English. After I’d been here an hour I realised that I did not understand one word. In the first week I picked up a tolerable working knowledge of the language and the next seven years convinced me gradually but thoroughly that I would never know it really well, let alone perfectly. This is sad. My only consolation being that nobody speaks English perfectly.
Remember that those five hundred words an average Englishman uses are far from being the whole vocabulary of the language. You may learn another five hundred and another five thousand and yet another fifty thousand and still you may come across a further fifty thousand you have never heard of before, and nobody else either.
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ARE THE FOLLOWSNG STORIES TRUE OR FALSE?
1. A sensational discovery has been made by two American scientists. They have found the lost personal diaries of Queen Isabella of Spain, of Lolumbus and of Montezuma. We can now recreate in detail the most important conversation between the main historical figures involved in the discovery of America.

2. In old times, animals, like people, were tried before a judge. Yes, cattle horses were sometimes hanged for their crimes. On September 5, 1379, a village swineherd in France left his young son in charge of the herd. The boy, like many other naughty children, teased the baby pigs. Naturally enough, the piglets began to squeal. Three grown-up pigs attacked the boy and killed him. Three days later, these three pigs were duly tried and executed. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, pronounced the sentence. Before sentencing them to death, the judge considered the case of the swineherd’s other pigs. The prosecutor wanted to punish all the pigs as accomplices. The other pigs, however, were given a warning and sent home.
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NO ONE HAS A RECIPE FOR LAUGHTER but we all recognise situations, texts or pictures which cause it. No one actually knows what humour is but many people may use it with uproarious effect and we may enjoy it. Clowns, professional entertainers, actors, writers earn their bread with it.
We all think that we have «humour” or a “sense of humour”. “Poor thing,” we say sometimes, ‘he has no sense of humour.» As a wise man once said, «Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humour?”
English dictionaries define humour as the quality of anything that is or seems to be funny or appeals to the comic sense or provokes laughter and the ability to understand and enjoy it.
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Word Games

You can play word games indoors when it’s too cold or wet to go outside, or in the garden when it’s too hot to do anything else.

The minister’s cat
The first player thinks of an adjective beginning with “A» and says, «The Minister’s cat is an Awful cat.» The next player thinks of an adjective beginning with «B» and says, «The minister’s cat is an Awful, Bold Cat,» and so on, each player calling out all the adjectives that have been used before, and then adding a new one in alphabetic order.
Anyone who makes a mistake or takes too long drops out until there is only one player — the winner — left.
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