Answer to Question 1
Simple tabulation involves just one variable. Example: we may express a count of how many students in a class are males and how many are females.
Answer to Question 2
The classificatory variables that represent the rows and columns in cross-tabulation (contingency tables) will be in the nominal scale of measurement. The variables described within the table can be nominal (categories) when counts are being expressed. They can be interval or ratio when measures such as the mean or median are being expressed.