John Paul Jervi , age 12, of Sommerville, Mass., for his question:

How did Argentina get its name?

The Spanish conquistadors were after gold and silver. They had a fine old time collecting this loot in Mexico arid Central America. Who can blame them for dreaming that the rest of the New World was likewise full of their favorite materials?

Some pushed south in hopes of finding more. They named one area Argentina, maybe just for luck. They named it with their word for silver, hoping to find still more supplies of the precious metal. They were disappointed. Argentina had nothing to offer but stretches of grassy plain. The silver hunters were too busy to realize the true value of this.

Today, those grassy plains have made Argentina the richest of the South American countries. They grow beef and cattle for people to eat. People around the world pay good money for meat from the grassy plains of the Argentine.