Learn Hardcore Russian: Я читаю исследование.

Russian has no articles. Nouns stand alone without a, an or the. Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context rather than from an article.

What case and number is исследование in, and why doesn’t its ending change?

Here исследование is neuter, singular, in the accusative case (direct object of читаю). Neuter nouns of the second declension ending in -ие have identical forms in nominative and accusative, so there’s no visible change.

Why is the verb читаю used instead of a perfective form?

Читаю is the present tense of the imperfective verb читать, which describes an ongoing or habitual action (“I am reading” or “I read regularly”). If you want to emphasize completion, you’d use the perfective прочитать, e.g. Я прочитаю исследование (“I will read the study through”).

How is Я читаю исследование pronounced, and where are the stressed syllables?

The sentence is pronounced “ya chee-TA-yu iss-lye-do-VA-nye.” Stress falls on the second syllable of читаю and on the penultimate syllable of исследование.