Michael Doherty, age 12, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for his question:

Does the chimpanzee rate as a monkey?

The clever chimpanzee is classified in the order of primates, along with all the other monkey type animals. The lemurs and tarsiers, the squirrel monkeys, macaques and others are subdivided into separate families of the primate order. The chimpanzee is classified in the Family Pongidae, another separate group of the monkey order. His family, however, is a small group of very special monkey type animals. They have larger brains, no tails and most of them have extra long arms.

These extra special primates are called the great apes. One is the slender, silky gibbon of Burma. Another is the bulky 200 pound orangutan of Borneo. Another is the six foot, 450 pound gorilla of the African Congo    and finally there is the charming chimpanzee. He may stand only five feet tall and weigh only 150 pounds. But to most of us he outshines the other great apes and perhaps all the other monkey¬type primates as well.