Alan Hallgren, age l2, of Omaha, Neb., for his question:

How did Africa get its name?

Africa is the second largest of the continents and is the home of many different types of people. It has been a continent of extreme contrasts since before the dawn of history. Egypt thrived by the Nile and Mediterranean traders established cities along its northern shores in ancient times.

The city of Carthage began as a Roman outpost and for some reason the Romans gave the name Africa to the countryside around it. Through the years the Romans probed deeper into the continent and established more towns and outposts along its shores. They realized that all this newly found territory was part of one big land mass and they extended the name Africa to cover it all.