In cibo et potu temperans, sed in potu temperantior, quippe qui ebrietatem in qualicumque homine, nedum in se ac suis, plurimum abominabatur.  Cibo enim non adeo abstinere poterat, ut saepe quereretur noxia corpori suo esse ieiunia.  Convivabatur rarissime, et hoc praecipuis tantum festivitatibus, tunc tamen cum magno hominum numero.  Cena cotidiana quaternis tantum ferculis praebebatur, praeter assam, quam venatores veribus inferre solebant, qua ille libentius quam ullo     5
alio cibo vescebatur.  Inter cenandum aut aliquod acroama aut lectorem audiebat.  Legebantur ei historiae et antiquorum res gestae.  Delectabatur et libri sancti Augustini, praecipue De civitate Dei.  Erat eloquentia copiosus et exuberans poteratque quicquid vellet apertissime exprimere.  Nec patrio tantum sermone contentus, etiam peregrinis linguis ediscendis operam impendit; in quibus Latinam ita didicit ut aeque illa ac patria linqua orare sit solitus, Graecam vero melius intellegere quam               10
pronuntiare poterat. Adeo quidem facundus erat ut etiam dicaculus appareret.  Artes liberales studiosissime coluit, earumque doctores plurimum veneratus magnis adficiebat honoribus. 

(Excerpts from Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, available online here: ch. 24 and ch. 25)

1.  What do we learn of Charlemagne in line 1?

He spent some time drinking every day.
He was equally restrained in food and drink.
He was more restrained in drinking than eating.
He often fasted.


2.  What did Charlemagne hate most of all (lines 1-2)?
gluttony
drunkenness
excess in himself and his own people
fasting


3.  What do we learn of Charlemagne in lines 2-3?
He was often asked his opinion on fasting.
He could not refrain from overeating.
Fasting had strengthened his body.
He complained of fasting’s effects on his body.


4.  What was Charlemagne’s attitude toward feasts

     (lines 3-4)?
He feasted if there were a large number of people

     present.
The presence of a large number of people made it

     unlikely that he would feast.
He was renowned for giving such great feasts.
Feasting was an occasion to gather great numbers

     of people.


5.  How did Charlemagne obtain his roast meat

     (lines 4-5)?
He hunted and roasted it himself.
from hunters
from merchants
only at inns when served to him


6.  What role did literature play in Charlemagne’s life

     (lines 6-7)?
He often read during meals.
He read it between meals
He heard it when no other entertainment was

     available.
He had it read at meals.

7. In broadest terms, what was Charlemagne’s favorite

    literary genre (lines 6-7)?
history
saints’ lives
light entertainment
theology


8.  For what skill was he particularly noted (line 7 on)?
literature
rhetoric
military expertise
politics


9.  On what word does sermone depend (line 8)?
patrio (line 8)
tantum (line 8)
contentus (line 9)
impendit (line 9)


10. Of what had Charlemagne made a special study

     (lines 8-9)?
rhetoric
languages
literature
geography of his fatherland


11. How extensive was Charlemagne’s knowledge of

     Latin and Greek (lines 9-10)?
He could read but not speak them.
He knew a little Latin and less Greek.
His Latin was equal to his native language, but

     his Greek was not so strong.
He did not understand Greek, but spoke Latin.


12. What people did he particularly honor

     (lines 11-12)?
teachers of humanities
physicians
artists
saints