Let’s do something slightly different this time. You spent some time in Part One of this chapter practicing various ways to express dates. As you have probably learned already, getting all the numbers and words to agree is fairly tricky. This activity will focus almost exclusively on providing you with opportunities to practice these expressions. Let’s begin by pointing your browser to

http://www.peoples.ru/

1			As you can tell, this site is devoted to люди – famous, infamous and ordinary. At the top of the page, in the center, you’ll notice a counter: how many people can you learn about from this site? How many interviews does the site hold? How many photographs?
2			The site’s contents change every day. The banner “События” heads a listing of the most important events that transpired on this day across the centuries; you’ll notice that only the year is given. These are often ordered chronologically, but that is not always the case. Please pick three events – the first, the last, and one from the middle – and spell out, in Russian, the full sentence. For instance, if the listing says “1917: Произошла революция в России” you would say/write: “В тысяча девятьсот семнадцатом году произошла революция в России.”
3			Now scroll down. On the right-hand side of the screen you will see the banner «Человек дня». It heads a list of several dozen names of people whose birthday is celebrated this week. Please pick five names from the list (preferrably names you think are probably Russian, and not all from the same day) and put together two sentences for each name. The first sentence should begin with the name of the person and use the verb родиться; the second sentence should begin with the date and use the expression день рождения. For instance, if the date and the name are 6.06 and Александр Сергеевич Пушкин, you would say: “Александр Сергеевич Пушкин родился шестого июня” and “Шестое июня – день рождения Александра Сергеевича Пушкина.”
4			Follow the links to the names of the five people you’ve chosen. Were you correct in assuming that they were Russian? Were you familiar with any of these names before? Identify the years in which they were born. Now rephrase your sentences from Questions 3 by adding the year to them.

А ЧТО ДАЛЬШЕ?

5			Explore the site by clicking on the names and photographs of people you find interesting and practicing the different expressions of time (you may want to use the links entitled “Календарь” and ‘Категории” in the banner at the top of the page).