French and British Ties and Occupation: The daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella married the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian of Hapsburg. The Spanish crown duly passed to the Hapsburgs, and Spain remained in their hands until the feeble-minded Carlos II died in 1700, leaving no heir. France seized the chance to install the young grandson of Louis XIV on the Spanish throne. A rival Hapsburg claimant was supported by Austria and Britain, who saw a powerful Spanish-French alliance as a major threat. In the subsequent War of the Spanish Succession (1702 –1713) most of the old kingdom of Aragón, including the Balearics, backed the Hapsburgs. Britain seized Gibraltar — in the name of the Hapsburg claimant — and retained it when the war was over. In 1708 Britain captured Menorca, and the magnificent harbor of Mahón (Maó), for the Royal Navy. England clung to it even when Bourbon forces captured Mallorca at the end of the war. Menorca changed hands between Britain, France, and Spain five more times in less than a century. Britain finally ceded the island to Spain in the year 1802, under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens. By 1805, Spain was once more aligned with France, and Spanish ships fought alongside the French against Nelson at Trafalgar. Napoleon came to distrust his Spanish ally and forcibly replaced the king of Spain with his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte. A French army marched in to subdue the country. The Spanish resisted and, aided by British troops commanded by the Duke of Wellington, drove the French out. What British historians call the Peninsular War (1808–1814) is known in Spain as the War of Independence. In the 19th century, practically all of Spain’s possessions in the Americas broke away in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, and the few that remained were lost at the end of the 19th century. The Balearics, further neglected, were beset with poverty and outbreaks of disease. However, toward the 20th century, things began to improve on the islands, with Mallorca reaping the rewards of successful agricultural crops and Menorca launching an export shoe industry. 

Question: "What did England cling to, after Bourbon forces captured Mallorca at the end of the war?"

Answer: "the harbor of MahÃ³n (MaÃ³)"

Response: yes


Imagine you are standing in a farm field in central Illinois. The land is so flat you can see for miles and miles. On a clear day, you might see a grain silo 20 miles away. You might think to yourself, it sure is flat around here. If you drive one hundred miles to the south, the landscape changes. In southern Illinois, there are rolling hills. Why do you think this is? What could have caused these features? There are no big rivers that may have eroded and deposited this material. The ground is capable of supporting grass and trees, so wind erosion would not explain it. To answer the question, you need to go back 12,000 years. Around 12,000 years ago, a giant ice sheet covered much of the Midwest United States. Springfield, Illinois, was covered by over a mile of ice. Its hard to imagine a mile thick sheet of ice. The massive ice sheet, called a glacier, caused the features on the land you see today. Where did glaciers go? Where can you see them today? Glaciers are masses of flowing ice. 

Question: "What are glaciers and what affect do they have on land?"

Answer: "The massive ice sheet, called a glacier, caused the features on the land"

Response: yes


Billy and Sally are brother and sister. Billy is seven and Sally is eight. Their mother, Deborah, likes to have Billy and Sally dress up in costumes and play a game where they are answering the telephone. Usually when they play the game, Billy answers the telephone in a loud voice, and Sally answers the telephone in a quiet voice. On Tuesdays, Billy answers in a quiet voice, and Sally answers in a loud voice. On Fridays, Billy answers in a loud voice and Sally in a quiet voice. Billy has blonde hair. Sally has brown hair. Deborah has blonde hair, and Billy and Sally's father, Bob, has brown hair. He tells them to eat lettuce every time that he sees them, so that they grow big and strong like he is. Deborah likes to add some sugar with the lettuce so that Billy and Sally know what it is like to have sweet tastes in their life. One day, a Wednesday, Billy throws some lettuce into Sally's hair. Deborah laughs an grabs some straw from their farm and puts it in Billy's hair. Billy and Sally live on a farm. They have a goat, named Joey, and a duck, named Quack. They sometimes play a game with the goat where they chase him around the farm. Other times, they play a game with Quack where they wave at Quack and laugh. They have a fun life growing up on the farm. 

Question: "What color hair does everyone have in Billy and Sally's family?"

Answer: "Red"

Response: no


Representing yourself in court can be a tricky endeavor. There are confusing legal terms to learn, strict procedures to follow and volumes of case law that often need to be understood to prepare a case. Lake County officials and a private agency that assists indigent litigants in Illinois want to make the practice easier by creating a self-help center for people who choose to represent themselves in legal matters. The center, which will be housed in the law library at the main courthouse in Waukegan, could open later this summer. "I think it's going to be extremely helpful," Court Administrator Bob Zastany said. "There is a population out there that will take advantage of this resource." The self-help center will be the only one of its kind in the county. Only a few operate nationwide, officials said. The project is the work of Lake County circuit court officials and Prairie State Legal Services, a statewide agency with an office in Waukegan that provides information and legal assistance to poor and elderly Illinois residents. The organization has received a $25,000 grant from the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group that funds programs designed to increase access to legal information and assistance, to help pay for the effort. Prairie State will share the money with the county. The county's law library is on the first floor of the governmental center at 18 N. County St. The new self-help center will be designed to help litigants find the information they need to properly represent themselves in court, an undertaking that can be complicated and confusing. "Some people can do OK on their own, and some people can do OK with some help," said Linda Rothnagel, the managing attorney for Prairie State Legal Services. "But other people can't do it. It's not always easy." Self-representation is a right affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The practice is far more common in civil matters than in criminal cases. In fact, self-represented litigants - formally called "pro se" in Latin, or "for oneself" - in criminal defenses are so rare that statistics about the practice generally are not kept, legal experts say. 

Question: "Why can representing yourself in court be "a tricky endeavor"?"

Answer: "Volumes of case law"

Response:
yes