Passage 1 - The Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly (pronounced 5/ll-ee) form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of

Cornwall. They are comprised of 140 islands and islets, the most significant of which are St Mary's, Tresco, St Martin's (with White Island), St Agnes (with Gugh), Bryher (with Gweal), Samson, An net, St Helen's, Tean and Great Ga nilly. The total population of the Isles of Scilly is just over two thousand. Scientific evidence suggests that the isles were likely much larger in ancient times and that many of them would have been joined into one island. Rising sea levels over time have led to the current geography.
Up until the early twentieth century, the residents of the Isles of Scilly practiced subsistence living, raising their own livestock and crops and catching fish to eat. Today, things are quite different. The Isles are well known for their flowers, particularly daffodils, which are their chief agricultural product. Otherwise, the Isles today depend largely on food and other products imported from the mainland, though fishing remains a popular pastime, if not a significant source of income.

The main industry on the isles today is tourism, making up 85% of the islands' total income. The favourable summer climate, conducive to flowers and holidays, facilitate the large amount of tourism in the area. The bulk of tourists visit St Mary's, the only island with a significant road network and airport, though the island ofTresco also has a number of timeshare resorts and a heliport. The holiday season on the Isles of Scilly, unlike many other tourist destinations in England, extends through October, when the isles are a top destination for bird watchers who come to see the many exotic birds who make the first stop of their migration on the isles.

The dominance of the tourism industry on the island has caused some political problems. Sixty-three percent of the island's jobs come from the tourism industry, but the vast majority of these offer only seasonal or part-time work. Thus, the isles employ a number of guest workers. Currently, the average income on the islands is only 70% that of the national average in the UK, whereas housing prices are, on average £5,000 more expensive than in the rest of the country. These factors make life difficult for those who make the isles their home, though they continue to be very popular among tourists.

Passage 2 - Calendars Through the Years

A How many days are there in a year? You might say 365, with an extra 'leap day' added to the end of February every four years. This averages out to a quarter of a day every year, so that every year is 365.25 days. This is because the actual length of a solar year - that is, the time it takes for the Earth to complete a full rotation of the Sun - is a little bit more than 365 days. Throughout history, most calendars have tried to match their year to the length of a solar year, with varying degrees of accuracy.

B The calendar used in much of the world today is based on the one used by the Romans. Because Romans thought that even numbers were unlucky, the earliest Roman calendar had months of 29 or 31 days, with 28 days in February. Since the year had 355 days, they would add a leap month of 27 days between February and March every 3 to 5 years, as determined by priests called pontifices. As a result, the average year was anywhere from 360 to 364 days, so it is no surprise that the calendar very quickly deviated from the solar year.

C Julius Caesar decided that the calendar should be based on the solar year, following a special year of 445 days in 46 BC that readjusted the months to their proper seasons. From 45 BC onwards, the months were given the current lengths of 30 or 31 days, retaining 28 for February but adding the 29th February every four years to account for the accumulated extra quarter days. The names of the months used by the Romans remain in English today, either with a slight adjustment to spelling (e.g., they called it Aprilis, we call it April) or in the exact same form (e.g., they also called September, October, November and December by those very names).

D The calendar used from 45 BC onwards - known as the Julian calendar, after the man who imposed it on the world - is far more accurate than any earlier calendar. Even so, the Julian calendar deviates from the solar year by 1 day every 128 years. This is because the exact length of the solar year is actually 365.2422 days, or about 11 minutes shorter than the 365.25 days calculated by the Romans.

E By the 16th century AD, the discrepancy between the solar year and the Julian calendar was notable enough that something had to be done. It took several decades of consultation among mathematicians and astronomers until it was finally decided to end the Julian calendar, and move to a new system of calculating leap years. Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the Julian calendar would end on Thursday 4th October 1582, and that the following day would be Friday 15th October. This would remove the 10 days that had been added in error by the Julian system for leap years, and readjust the calendar to the seasons in the solar year.

F The Gregorian calendar was put into use immediately in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Poland and most of France, and in Austria, Hungary and much of Germany in the next few years. However, the new calendar was not implemented by the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, such as the colonies that are known today as Canada and the United States, until 1752. By then, the adjustment required was 11 days, so the Parliament decided that the British would go to bed at the end of the day on 2nd September 1752 and wake up the next morning on 14th September. Sweden followed the British in moving to the Gregorian calendar the next year.

G An even longer adjustment was required when the Gregorian calendar was adopted by Japan in 1872, and in the early 20th century by China, Bulgaria, Estonia, Russia, Greece and Turkey. Many of these countries that were among the last to adopt the Gregorian calendar for civic purposes used the Byzantine calendar, a variant of the Julian calendar, prior to the change. Many people in these same nations continue to use the Eastern Orthodox calendar (also based on the Julian calendar) for religious feasts and festivals. Similarly, in China and Japan, a traditional calendar is still used to select dates for weddings, funerals and new ventures. These last two countries did not exactly delay the move to the Gregorian calendar; rather, they started using it once it became beneficial, due to the more extensive connections with other countries on that calendar.

H As we can see from this brief history of calendars, one of the key challenges in making any calendar is the decision about how to account for the variations between the calendar year and the solar year, since the latter includes a fraction of a day. The Gregorian calendar improved considerably on the Julian calendar limiting the discrepancy to one day every 3,336 years. While it is commonly believed that every fourth year is a leap year, the actual rule imposed in 1582 is slightly more complicated: we add a day to February in years that are divisible by 4, but not in years divisible by 100, unless they can be divided by 400. Thus, 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 were. This adjustment means that the average calendar year is only 26 seconds longer than a solar year, so it won't be an issue again until the year 4918.