Read the text with a dictionary and do the exercise that follows it

In 1990 Belarusians were celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the birth of Doctor Francisak Skaryna, the first translator and publisher of the Bible (1517–1519) in the Belarusian language. The impact of Skaryna’s work has been profound both on the cultural development of Belarus and on the Belarusian patriotic movement in the 20^th century.

Belarusian printing owes its beginnings to Dr. Francisak Skaryna, a prominent scholar and humanist. Dr. Skaryna was born in a wealthy merchant family in the old Belarusian city of Polatsk in 1490. After attending local schools he studied at Krakow and other universities. He received his degree in liberal arts, and later, at the University of Padua, he received his degree in medicine. He was a true Renaissance man – his intellectual interests embraced theology, literature, linguistics, poetry, art, law, medicine, botany, and printing.

The most important of his achievements was the translation and publication of the Bible into the Belarusian language, first in Prague in 1517–1519, and later in Vilnya. Skaryna’s Belarusian Bible was the second work printed in a native Slavonic tongue.

Like other translator working elsewhere in Europe at that time, he wanted to “make knowledge available to the people in their own language”. He said, “I vow it shall become a language of books, and not only of speech”.

Speak on:

– Scaryna’s life and education;

– Scaryna’s contribution to the Belarusian history and culture.