General Design Question

I am very new to web design and would like to know if WP can accomplish what the project requires. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
1. I would like first page to be similar to http://www.drudgereport.com that will link to internal pages that would resemble wikipedia. I have read a lot about themes, templates, pages and child pages however I am not sure of the definitions of the terms and how they relate to each other yet.
2. If this can not be done would it be possible to have a page outside of WP as the homepage and link to the appropriate wiki type WP pages?

Thank you…bill