Activity 1

In this chapter Jim finds himself exploring the vast underground expanses of the Moscow subway – the Metro. Let’s retrace his steps by descending to the virtual home of one of Moscow’s most well-publicized cultural treasures:

http://www.metro.ru/


1			Immediately under the logo and the words “Московское метро” a banner announces two key facts about the life of the Metro. Use the information contained in the top line of the banner to find out: What hours and days is the Metro open? The bottom line is slightly more complicated, but with the help of the glossary in the back of your textbook you should be able to answer the question which bothers many a late-night user of the Metro: why does the Metro have to close at all?




2			If you have not used the Moscow Metro before, your first item of business should be to figure out how to use it. Let’s go to the link called “Справочная” (on the bottom of the right-hand column), and, once that page opens, choose the second link from the top (“Информационные знаки и указатели”). That page, you will see, is devoted to various signs (знаки и указатели) уоu will no doubt encounter in the subway. In fact, you have probably encountered similar signs in many other places before. Your goal now is to figure out what the Russian equivalents of these signs are. What are the Russian names/expressions for: • an information booth? • “no smoking”? • transfer to a different station? • “proceed to the right”?




3			The next question on the agenda of any Metro passenger: how much will it cost us to use the system? To find out the answer, let’s go back to the home page, then select the link “Оплата проезда.” Both of these nouns are derived from verbs that should be familiar to you: платить and ездить. Choose the first link – “История стоимости проезда.” You just dealt with the word ‘проезд;’ you’ve already encountered the word ‘история;’ and the word ‘стоимость’ is derived from the verb стоить (as in: Сколько стоит ...?). Knowing all of this, how might you translate оплата and стоимость (words which you will encounter in a number of different contexts, not just in public transportation)?




4			You will see a table of Metro ticket prices from the very beginning. When, might you conclude from looking at this chart, did the Moscow Metro begin to function? To find out the current price per ticket, you’ll need to scroll all the way down. How much is it? Approximately how much might that be in US or Canadian dollars? Do you think that this is a reasonable price? How much has the price risen in the past two years? If you scroll up you will see that there was a thirty-year interval during which the price did not chage at all. During what years was this the case and how much did a trip cost back then?




5			Staying on the subject of the history of the Metro (but switching gears slightly), let’s look at how the system has grown over the years. Your textbook (p. 73) provides an excellent map of the Metro (including many stations that are under construction at the moment). The website contains several dozen system maps, stretching all the way back to the subway’s opening in – when was it, again?.. From the home page find the link that will lead you to the system maps. You learned the word for “map” in this unit (you might want to revisit the text on pp. 70-71), so this should not present any problems for you. Now scroll down to the first system map. How many lines and stations did the Metro comprise when it first opened?




6			The real challenge is to figure out what the original lines correspond to on the map of today’s Metro (if you don’t have a textbook handy, you can check the most recent maps on the website as well). One problem here is that, as you already know from your textbook, many stations have been renamed (several times). To find out which station is which, let’s open a new window and follow the “Станции” link from the home page. Can you locate the original station names on this listing? In today’s Metro, each line has a name; what are the names of the lines which contain the original stations?




7			As you have probably noticed, the list of stations is actually a list of links to photographs of these stations. Look at the images of the original stations. How might you describe the style in which they are designed? Spend some time exploring the pictures of the other stations; remember, no two are exactly alike in the Moscow Metro! What differences do you notice between the stations built in various decades? What stations do you find most interesting from the architectural point of view?

А ЧТО ДАЛЬШЕ?


8			Does the secret, government-use-only subway system (Metro-2) actually exist? What will the Metro look like by 2010 – and after? Metro.RU contains answers to these and dozens of other questions, obscure and fascinating, about the Moscow subway – as you will no doubt find out when you explore some of the other links from the home page. For more information (in Russian and in English) about the subway systems in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of the former USSR, visit: http://meta.metro.ru http://metromost.narod.ru http://www.metropoliten.newmail.ru

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