Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question. Identify your answer by writing the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet. Have you ever thought about the names of the months? Why are “January” and “February” not called “Primo” or “Secondo”? Is it because the original names were created in ancient times? Or is it because the originators preferred odd words? Take February, for example. Say it aloud a few minutes and you start to ...

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question. Identify your answer by writing the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet.

Have you ever thought about the names of the months? Why are “January” and “February” not called “Primo” or “Secondo”? Is it because the original names were created in ancient times? Or is it because the originators preferred odd words? Take February, for example. Say it aloud a few minutes and you start to wonder. Most people don’t know who developed these names. However, a little research reveals that the names of the months came mostly from a combination of the names of Roman gods and goddesses, important festivals, and the original numbers of the months. Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII change the calendar to make it more exact. Caesar developed a new calendar of 364 and a quarter days, the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun from one spring season to the next. The Pope’s astronomers refined the calendar regarding leap years; they determined that there should be no leap year in years ending in 00- unless they were divisible by 400; the years 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 would not be considered leap years, while the years 1600 and 2000 would be. This new Gregorian calendar was so accurate that today, scientists need only add leap seconds every few years to the clock in order to keep the calendar matching the Earth’s cycles.

What is the topic of the passage?