This year is a leap year. Leap years are years with 366 days, instead of the usual 365. Leap years are necessary because the actual length of a year is 365.242 days, not 365 days, as commonly stated. Basically, leap years come every 4 years, and most years that can be evenly(平均地) divided by 4 have 366 days. This extra day is added to the calendar on February 29^th which is known as a leap day. Why leap is used here? Leap means jump.[來源:]

However, there is one exception to the leap year rule about century years. Century years are only considered as leap years if they are evenly divided by 400. Therefore, 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was a leap year.

A person who is born on February 29^th may be called a "leapling" or a "leap year baby". In non-leap years, some leaplings celebrate(慶祝) their birthday on either February 28^th or March 1^st. In England and Wales or in Hong Kong, a person born on February 29^th, 1996, will have legally(法律上) reached 18 years old on March 1^st, 2014. If he or she was born in the United States, Taiwan or New Zealand, his or her legally birthday will come a day earlier.

There is a popular custom in some countries that a woman may ask a man to marry her on February 29^th. If the man refuses, he then has to give the woman money or buy her a dress.

Since leap days are special days, people nowadays want to do something different within the 24 extra hours. Big jumps are the most popular ones.

Some salaried(領(lǐng)薪水的) workers want to get pay for their extra day’s work. But in my opinion, if you know why there is a leap day, you will get the answer to this problem.

1. The next leap year is          .

A. 2014                         B. 2016                       C. 2018

2. American boy Toby is a leapling. Next year he will probably to have his birthday party on       .

A. February 28^th                  B. February 29^th                C. March 1^st

3. Which picture is about popular custom on leap days?

A.                  B.              C.

4.. Many people like to have a big jump on leap days probably because         .

A. it’s a custom                  B. they are leaplings             C. leap means jump

5.We can learn from the passage that         .

A. 2100 will not be a leap year

B. every year leaplings celebrate their birthday on either February 28^th or March 1^st

C. it is necessary to pay the salaried workers for the leap day’s work

 

【小題1】What about _______(see) our teacher later on?
【小題2】It takes me half an hour ______(work)out this question.
【小題3】It was raining ______ (heavy) at this time yesterday.
【小題4】I hope I’ll be a teacher when I ________(grow) up.
【小題5】Who is the _________ (tall) Bill, John or Jim?
【小題6】Would you please ________ (show) me your photos?
【小題7】Look! Who is ________(draw) on the blackboard?
【小題8】I always ________(go) to bed at 10:30.
【小題9】What ______ you ______(buy) in the supermarket just now?

We use the Internet for many things: business, shopping, writing letters, talking to people, finding information, and so on. In recent years, a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There’s no real word for it yet, so we’ll call it e-talk. People don’t like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases (短語) into a few letters called acronyms(首字母縮略詞). Acronyms are often used in chat rooms.
Some of them are:
BTW(by the way)     BRB (be right back)
LOL (laughing out loud) IMO (in my opinion)
People also use many abbreviations. They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations are:
info (information)    puter (computer)    pic (picture)      sec (second)
We usually don’t see people when we communicate on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keyboards to draw “feeling”, such as:
: ) (happy)     :-( (sad) ;    : P (joking)   : O (surprised)
These days, many forums have picture feelings. For example:
happy          sad         angry        cool
There are even whole new words, like ‘newbie’ (someone who is new on a chat board or forum). When you write something bad about someone else, it’s called ‘flaming’ the person.
It takes time to get used to e-talk. Also, different groups in the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbies sometimes have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.
【小題1】 Why do people type acronyms?

A．To show their feelings.

B．To make jokes.

C．Because people can type them quickly.

D．In this way, newbies won’t understand them.

【小題2】What does “My puter is not working well. :-( ” mean?

A．The person is happy about getting a new computer.

B．The person has to go away from their computer.

C．The person is angry at somebody.

D．The person is sad that his computer is having problems.

【小題3】If someone is angry, what may he type?

A．

B．

C．LOL

D．BRB

【小題4】E-talk will probably_________.

A．keep changing

B．stay the same

C．be used by people on the telephone

D．be easy for newbies to understand

【小題5】People can do the following through the Internet except _________.
A. doing shopping                B. writing diaries
C. eating foods                   C. playing games

  We use the Internet for many things: business, shopping, writing letters, talking to people, finding information and so on. In recent years a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There’s no real word for it yet, so we’ll call it e-talk. People don’t like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases into a few letters called acronyms. Acronyms are often used in chat rooms. Some of them are
BTW (by the way)        BRB (be right back)
LOL (laughing out loud)    IMO (in my opinion)
People also use many abbreviations(縮寫). They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations are:
Info(information)       puter (computer)
Pie(picture)           sec (second)
We usually don’t see people when we communicate on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keywords to draw “feeling”, such as:
:-)(happy)    :-p(joking)   :-( (sad)    :-0 (surprised)
These days, many forums(論壇) have picture feelings. For example,

(sad)      (happy)
There are even whole new words, like“newbie’s”(someone who is new on a chat board or forum).
It takes time for people to get used to e-talk. Also, different groups on the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbie’s have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.
【小題1】What does the underlined word “acronyms” mean?

A．網(wǎng)友

B．聊天室

C．首字母縮寫詞

D．關(guān)鍵詞

【小題2】Why do people type acronyms?

A．To show their feelings.

B．Because people can type them quickly.

C．In this way newbie’s won’t understand them.

D．To make people use Internet

【小題3】What does “BTW, my puter is not working well. :- ( ” mean ?

A．The person is angry at somebody.

B．The person is happy about getting a new computer

C．The person is sad that his computer is having problems.

D．The person is joking that his computer is having problems.

【小題4】E-talk will probably _______.

A．keep changing

B．be easy by people on the telephone

C．be used by people on the telephone

D．make life easier

【小題5】What’s the best title for this passage?

A．E-talk Language	B．Picture Feelings
C．How to Use Abbreviations	D．use the Internet