Bonnie Gregory, age 11, of Spokane, Wash., for his question:

WHERE DID CIVILIZATION BEGIN?

Civilization means living in an advanced way that includes having people group together into cities. The word comes from the Latin (ital) civis (unital), which means citizen of a city.

Early man was not considered civilized since he could not write, he made no provision for a division of labor and he lived only in the smallest of groups.

Historians say that the first advance toward civilization came in about 8000 B.C. when man discovered he could get most of his food by growing plants and raising livestock. With this came a group of people settling in a village where they soon added cloth weaving and pottery ¬making.

Man's second advance toward civilization came with the discovery of metals. This gave him better tools and a useful medium of exchange. With metals came trade and production.