leap year: うるう年;
literally: 文字どおりに，逐語的に;
leap: ～を跳び越える;
hence: それゆえ, したがって;
occur 起る:生じる
introduce: ～を導入する;
********************
This year is a special year for all of us. February sees an extra day added to our calendar giving us one more day of work, rest or play. The name leap year comes from the fact that hundreds of years ago the leap year day did not exist in English law. Literally, the day was ‘leapt over’ or ignored, hence the term ‘leap year’. They occur every four years. It is said that Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years in the Roman empire over 2000 years ago, but the Julian Calender had only one rule: any year evenly divided by 4 would be a leap year. But this led to too many leap years.　Now the Gregorian Calendar – the modern calendar, calculates a Leap Year if:
1) The year is evenly divisible by 4;
2)If the year can be evenly divided by 100,
it is NOT a leap year, unless;
3) The year is also evenly divisible by 400.
Then it is a leap year. (by Prof. Simon Smith)
********************

Notes :
controversy 論争；
invade〈権利など〉を侵害する;
wide-angle〈レンズが〉広角の;
at a time 一度に，続けざまに;
charge〈金額〉を請求する;
********************
Most people have heard of Google’s map street view and its unique service which lets users look down almost any road in the world. Despite the controversy of Google invading people’s privacy they are now they are moving indoors. But this time they insist that they will be operating on an invite only basis. The company said it was beginning the process by inviting the most searched types of businesses to request a visit by its photographers. These included restaurants, hotels, shops, gyms and vehicle repair workshops. The photoshoots will produce 360-degree images wide-angle lenses. Business owners are also invited to upload their own pictures. The news comes at a time when they also announced that from the 1 January 2012, Google will charge for the Google Maps API service.　(by Prof. Simon Smith)
********************