Q: (CNN) -- Roger Ebert was seldom at a loss for words.

His debates with Gene Siskel, his longtime co-host on a succession of movie-review television shows, sometimes seemed to start before the introduction and often appeared to continue well after the credits rolled. He wrote reviews, columns, interviews and articles, an astonishing collection of work that spanned more than four decades with the Chicago Sun-Times, freelance contributions for magazines such as Esquire, CD-ROMs (Ebert's movie guide was one of the sources for the popular Cinemania) and rogerebert.com. He hosted festivals for underappreciated films. He gave running travelogues from Cannes and Toronto.

He tweeted, Facebooked, corresponded with film lovers and held court with words long after his physical voice was silenced by cancer a decade ago.

Ebert lost his battle with cancer Thursday. He was 70.

What a voice he had: firm, plain, brooking no claptrap and telling you exactly what he thought, a throwback, he said, to his newspaper reporter days. (Chicago, then and now, was full of such cheerily blunt personalities: Mike Royko, Irv Kupcinet, Studs Terkel -- perhaps to be expected in the birthplace of "The Front Page.")

Opinion: Ebert's sheer love of life

Above all, he was easy to relate to. Like many of his readers, I didn't always agree with Ebert, but I could understand his viewpoint. He understood movies were these complex machines of directors and actors and special effects guys and studio suits holding bags of money, machines that -- when they worked -- were magical, like dreams. And when they didn't, he could be a compassionate man, more forgiving than many other critics.

1. Roger Ebert
2. movie-review
3. cancer
4. Gene Siskel
5. yes
6. no
7. 70
8. no
9. to relate
10. magical, like dreams

Numbered questions:
1. Who does the article feature?
2. what is he famous for?
3. how did he die?
4. Who was his cohost?
5. Could he speak?
6. For his entire life?
7. how old was he when he passed away?
8. Did he hold back on his reviews?
9. Did people usually agree with him?
10. how was he different from other critics?

Q: The term Reconstruction Era, in the context of the history of the United States, has two senses: the first covers the complete history of the entire country from 1865 to 1877 following the American Civil War (1861 to 1865); the second sense focuses on the attempted transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, as directed by Congress, with the reconstruction of state and society. With the three Reconstruction Amendments, the era saw the first amendments to the U.S. Constitution in decades.

Three visions of Civil War memory appeared during Reconstruction: the reconciliationist vision, which was rooted in coping with the death and devastation the war had brought; the white supremacist vision, which included terror and violence; and the emancipationist vision, which sought full freedom, citizenship and Constitutional equality for African Americans.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson both took moderate positions designed to bring the South back into the union as quickly as possible, while Radical Republicans in Congress sought stronger measures to upgrade the rights of African Americans, including the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, while curtailing the rights of former Confederates, such as through the provisions of the WadeDavis Bill. Johnson followed a lenient policy toward ex-Confederates. Lincoln's last speeches show that he was leaning toward supporting the enfranchisement of all freedmen, whereas Johnson was opposed to this.

1. two
2. 1865-1877
3. American Civil War
4. 1861 to 1865
5. the entire country
6. the attempted transformation of the Southern United States
7. 1863-1877
8. Congress
9. Reconstruction Amendments
10. three
11. the U.S. Constitution
12. in decades
13. moderate
14. the union
15. the South
16. as quickly as possible
17. Andrew Johnson
18. upgrade their rights
19. Fourteenth Amendment
20. WadeDavis Bill

Numbered questions:
1. How many ways did we look at the Reconstruction Era?
2. What years does the first one span?
3. What event preceded this?
4. When was that?
5. How much of the country does this version cover?
6. What part does the other version concern?
7. What years?
8. Who was trying change the south?
9. What did they use?
10. How many?
11. What were they amending?
12. How long had it been since it was amended?
13. What kind of position did Lincoln have?
14. What did he want to reunite?
15. With what?
16. How fast?
17. Who shared this idea?
18. What did Congress want to do for African Americans?
19. What was one amendment that would do that?
20. What bill was about former Confederates?

Q: CHAPTER XII. LUCREZIA'S THIRD MARRIAGE

At about the same time that Burchard was making in his Diarium those entries which reflect so grossly upon the Pope and Lucrezia, Gianluca Pozzi, the ambassador of Ferrara at the Vatican, was writing the following letter to his master, Duke Ercole, Lucrezia's father-in-law elect:

"This evening, after supper, I accompanied Messer Gerardo Saraceni to visit the Most Illustrious Madonna Lucrezia in your Excellency's name and that of the Most Illustrious Don Alfonso. We entered into a long discussion touching various matters. In truth she showed herself a prudent, discreet, and good-natured lady."(1)

1 See Gregorovius's Lucrezia Borgia.

The handsome, athletic Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, with his brothers Sigismondo and Fernando, had arrived in Rome on December 23 with the imposing escort that was to accompany their brother Alfonso's bride back to Ferrara.

Cesare was prominent in the welcome given them. Never, perhaps, had he made greater display than on the occasion of his riding out to meet the Ferrarese, accompanied by no fewer than 4,000 men-at-arms, and mounted on a great war-horse whose trappings of cloth of gold and jewels were estimated at 10,000 ducats.

The days and nights that followed, until Lucrezia's departure a fortnight later, were days and nights of gaiety and merry-making at the Vatican; in banquets, dancing, the performance of comedies, masques, etc., was the time made to pass as agreeably as might be for the guests from Ferrara, and in all Cesare was conspicuous, either for the grace and zest with which he nightly danced, or for the skill and daring which he displayed in the daily joustings and entertainments, and more particularly in the bull-fight that was included in them.

1. Cesare
2. no fewer than 4,000 men-
3. a horse
4. 10,000 ducats
5. days and nights
6. yes
7. Yes
8. Lucrezia's departure
9. Duke Ercole's son
10. she was a prudent, discreet, and good-natured
11. the Most Illustrious Madonna
12. Alfonso
13. Two
14. Rome
15. December 23
16. the ambassador of Ferrara
17. Gianluca Pozzi
18. his master
19. Duke Ercole
20. Cardinal Ippolito d'Este

Numbered questions:
1. Who rode out to meet someone?
2. With how many people?
3. And on what?
4. With things worth how much?
5. How long was the party?
6. Was there dancing?
7. Did Cesare dance?
8. What ended the celebration?
9. Who was she to marry?
10. What character traits did she have?
11. What was her title?
12. Which of the brothers was getting married?
13. How many brothers did he have?
14. Where did they go?
15. When did they arrive?
16. Who wrote the letter?
17. What was his name?
18. To who did he write?
19. Named?
20. What was the future groom's title?