Lifesaver
——African giant pouched rats

2020 is the Year of Rat according to the Chinese calendar,but a rat doesn’t have a good reputation in most cultures of the world.Usually people will sniff or frown when they see a rat or even talk about one.And many idioms related to rats have negative meaning.For example,Americans use the phrase“ smell a rat ”to express something is not right or suspicious.But there is one kind of rats which are not only useful but also can save people`s life.They are African giant pouched rats.

In Tanzania,trainers of APOPO,a non-profit organization train rats to find landmines.The secret weapon of these rats is their extraordinary sense of smell.

When the rats smell or find a landmine underground,they will stop and scratch on the spot with their paws and hence the trainers know it and place a marker there.

APOPO says its rats have discovered more than 107,000 landmines and unexploded explosives,making life safer for almost a million people.Humans have used metal-searching devices to do this work for years.But rats--it turns out--do it better.And they also cost less money.

2020年是中國農(nóng)歷鼠年，但是世界范圍內(nèi)老鼠的名聲都不太好。人們看到甚至談到老鼠，就會皺眉或者嗤之以鼻。許多和老鼠有關(guān)的習(xí)語也貶義居多。例如，美國人用短語“smell a rat”來表達“某事不對或可疑”。但是，有一種老鼠不但有用而且能救人的命。那就是非洲巨袋鼠。

在坦桑尼亞，非盈利組織APOPO 的訓(xùn)練人員訓(xùn)練非洲巨袋鼠來發(fā)現(xiàn)地雷。這些老鼠的秘密武器是它們非凡的嗅覺。

當(dāng)老鼠發(fā)現(xiàn)地雷時，它們就會停下來并用爪子抓地，這樣，訓(xùn)練人員就會知道地雷的位置并標記出來。

APOPO說他們的老鼠已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了多于107000顆地雷及其他未引爆的爆炸品，讓近一百萬人生活得更安全。人類一直利用金屬探測器來尋雷，但是老鼠做得更好，而且省錢。

Notes：

reputation 名聲；聲譽

sniff 嗅；嗤之以鼻

frown 皺眉

negative 負面的；消極的

pouch小袋；育兒袋

landmine 地雷

extraordinary 非凡的；不同尋常的

scratch 抓；刮

marker 標記；記號