Notes:
the Spanish Flu Epidemic スペイン風邪の(世界的)流行;
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Researchers have found that taking an aspirin a day may help reduce the chance of getting cancer. Aspirin, it seems, has proved one of the most remarkable drugs of the Twentieth century. A French chemist, Charles Gerhardt was the first to use the drug in 1853 which later became one of the most popular drugs of the last century. The popularity of aspirin grew over the first half of the 20th century after many people used it in the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1918 which killed over 50 million people. Today it continues to be seen as the best remedy from headaches to major diseases. The word “aspirin” is well-known in Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Is it a word known to most Japanese?(by Prof. Simon Smith)
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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;
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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)
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