Andy Warren, age 7, of Lebanon, Tenn., for his question:

Why do we have tonsils?

Your body does countless jobs all by itself. As you learn more about it you admire and respect the way it performs its many duties. All of its parts have useful jobs and the work is well planned. Then perhaps you get a sorry surprise. Your tonsils must be removed. And later your body gets along just as well or even better without them. You wonder whether these bumpy little flaps in your throat ever had any useful work to do.

The answer is that they did, for tonsils are great germ trappers. Healthy tonsils destory many microbes that enter your nose and month. Unless stopped, they might move farther inside with colds and other infections. sometimes the hard working tonsils become infected with the germs they trap. Then they must be removed. Their work is then done by other sets of tonsils that we have hidden deeper in the nose and throat.