1940

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/1940

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the year designation?Leap year (MCMXL)
2. What is the calendar alignment?The 40th year of the 20th century, beginning the 1940s decade
3. What makes 1940 a leap year?1940 had 366 days instead of the usual 365. It added an extra day, February 29, to keep the calendar in sync with the Earth's orbit.
4. Why does the calendar add February 29 every four years?The Earth takes about 365.256 days to orbit the Sun. Adding February 29 every four years keeps the seasons from drifting across the calendar.

Leap Year: A year containing an intercalary day, February 29th, to maintain calendar synchronization with astronomical seasons.
Gregorian Calendar: The Julian calendar reform that is the internationally accepted civil calendar, featuring a system of leap years to approximate the tropical year.
Common Era (CE): A year-numbering system that is chronologically equivalent to the Anno Domini (AD) system, used in secular and academic contexts.
Movable Feasts: Religious holidays whose dates are not fixed to a specific calendar date but are determined by astronomical or ecclesiastical calculations, such as Easter.