There are about 80,000,000
mines* under the ground in more . than 60 countries. It is difficult and
dangerous to clear these rnines, About 50 people including many children
were’ killed ‘or
htirt each iay. In 2003, APOPO, a Dutch research com pan y
that uains the an imals, came up with the-idea of s\ng rats to search for the
mines.
The animal trainers ‘found that a kind of rats from Africa were clever and had.a
sharp* sense of smell. The rats were about 75 cm long and.weighed about l.35 kg, light enough to run across a minefield without setting off the mines.
In January 2004, the APOPO
started this project. First, the trainers let the 4-week-old baby rats get
familiar with humans. A few weeks later, the rats were no Ionger afraid of
people and ‘the things around them. Then they
were trained to connect a click* sound with food. After the rats had leamed that,
the trainers then taught them to tell the difference between the smell of mines
and other smells. When the rats could do it, the click was sounded and they
were given a bit of banana. The method was called clicker training. “The training isn’t easy, said trainer Abdullah
Mchomvu. “You have to be patient. Sometimes
I get angry, but then again, I tell myself these are animals.”
After nine months’ training, the rats were taken to a minefiel山 They’ran across the minefield, stopped, sat and scratched the ground
to tell the deminers* that they smelt out’a
mine. Then the mine was cleared. It had taken two ‘deminers a day to clear a 200㎡ . minefield, but with the help of two rats ‘they could finish it in two hours.
The rats and ~he deminers
saved thousands of lives, “The rats did this job much better
than we expected. So far they have helped to make almost 2,000,000㎡ of land safe. They are heroes,”
said Bart Weeqens, the head of the APOPO.
1. The APOPO trained the rats to search for .
A. children B.
animals C. mines D.
bananas
2. While training the rats, the trainers have
to be
A.
patient B.
clever C.
brave D. serious
3. How long did the training last?
A. Two hours.
B. One day. C. Four weeks. D. Nine months.
4.Which of the following is NOT TRUE according
to the passage?
A. Each day about 200 people were
killed or hurt by mines,
B.The APOPO started to train the
rats in January 2004.
C. The trainers gave the rats
food after they smelt out a mine.
D.The
rats and the deminers saved thousands of lives.
