RUSSIAN 3 COURSE
Page updated: Thursday, October 8, 2009 3:13 PM

Привет, посреднокурсанчики!

I have a reading assignment for you, due next Tuesday (10/13). I have uploaded the first chapter (Глава 1 - Из далёкого прошлого) of a book for intermediate Russian learners (посреднокурсанчики, you guys) called Страницы истории (Pages of History), a Soviet-era history reader. It's actually very good.

Your assignment is to read/translate the first paragraph on the first page ("Советскую страну..."). Then answer the questions:

1. How would you translate the phrase советская страна? Is it the subject or object in the first sentence?

2. What does the verb населять mean? (There is a related noun - население.)

3. Сто means 100. What do you suppose сотни means?

4. How would you translate the phrase различные народы?

5. What is the infinitive that возникли is formed from?

6. What is the opposite of предки?

7. Прошлое (время) = past. Далёкий = distant. Translate the title of this chapter: Из далёкого прошлого.

8. Стоянка is a noun that is derived from the verb стоять (to stand). It can mean parking area or anchorage, but here it is something советские историки и археологи discovered in the territory of the Soviet Union (400 _____ of primitive people). What English word would be the best translation for the blank in the parentheses?

9. What is the nominative case form of жилищ? What case is form is древних жилищ?

10. Besides 400 _____, what 3 other things did the historians and archaeologists find?

До вторника!

г-н Х.