February is a form of februare, which was a Roman festival. On that day, people begged the gods for healthy children and enough crops in the next year.

　　March is named after Mars, whom many people have read about as the god of wars. Few people realize that at first Mars was the god of springtime. Fighters would “take the winter off” from fighting, resting while the weather was too bad for the battle. In the spring-around what we now think of as March battles would start again. From this time line, Mars soon became more well known as the god of wars than of springtime.

　　April is a mystery. Experts argue a lot about the origin of it.

　　May is also named after a goddess, Maika. She was the goddess of plants, because plants often begin to have flowers in May.

　　Not every month kept the same name over the years. The first name for July was Quintilis, “the fifth month”. August was at first called Sextilis, “the sixth month”. Likewise, September, October, November, and December were the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months. How did July and August get their new names? July was named after Julius Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, after he was killed in 66 BC. August was named after Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar’s nephew.

　　24. The underlined phrase “rattle off” in Paragraph 1 probably means “_______”.

　　A. shake until something drops off

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