Activity 2

In the fourth part of this chapter you learned that the Lena and Vova have a собака, Белка, and that Sasha has a кот (tomcat), Мотя.

Even though nearly all Russians live in apartments, many choose to keep pets – sometimes very large ones, at that. To learn more about pets in Russia, open the home page of Птичий рынок (Bird Market) at

http://www.ptichka.ru


1			At the top of the Птичий рынок home page you'll see a bar with pictures and names. Two of these should be familiar, but the words on the website differ in one important detail from those on page 68 in the textbook, where you learned about Белка and Мотя. What is this difference?




2			Using the pictures as your guide, try to guess what the remaining words on this bar mean. What do you think the singular forms of these words might be?




3			Click on the собаки icon. A box with the Russian alphabet running along its top border appears. This is a data bank filled with information on the many породы, or breeds, of dog. Which of the following breeds seems best suited to big-city apartment life? Why? Hint: You might want to pay particular attention to the category "размер" (size) in the fact list near the bottom of each entry. See if you can come up with the English names for these dogs:• боксёр • дог • манчестерский терьер • ши-тцу Pick out at least one adjective from those used in the description of each dog. If necessary, look it up in your dictionary. Now you're ready to describe them: • Боксёр - ___________ собака • Ши-тцу - ___________ собака • Манчестерский терьер - _______ собака • Дог - _____________ собака




4			Click on the кошки icon, and let's learn a little about our feline friends. We don't know what breed of cat Мотя is exactly, but judging by the picture on page 68 of your textbook, which of the following породы seems most likely to be Sasha's pet? Why? • бомбейская • сиамская • американская жесткошерстная • донской сфинкс Pick out one adjective from the description of each cat. If necessary, look it up in your dictionary. Now you can describe them. • Бомбейская – ___________ кошка • Сиамская – ___________ кошка • американская жесткошерстная - _______ кошка • Донской сфинкс - _______ кошка




5			In Russian, just as in English, they often say: животное похоже на своего хозяина (a pet resembles its owner). Russian President Vladimir Putin has two types of dog: white той-пудель (he has two of these) and a black лабрадор ретривер. For pictures of Putin with his pets, open the official Kremlin website at http://www.kremlin.ru. On the left-hand side of the page you'll see the word фотоальбом, or photo album. Click on this link. The фотоальбом has seven sections. Click on the section labeled В домашнем кругу, or At home with the family. Among the pictures here are two featuring Putin with his dogs. Which dog resembles the president? Why? Which dog is more "presidential"?




6			А ЧТО ДАЛЬШЕ? The Russian Internet is rich in pet-related sites. This is natural, because Russians on the whole are big pet-lovers. Here are just a couple: http://www.zooclub.ru http://www.pets.kiev.ua

Your Results:

E-mail Your Results