■刀客

原文：

 Christophe Cox, APOPO's CEO and co-founder, said the organization began exploring new explosive-detection techniques after an analysis of the land mine problem found that land mine detection was ‘the most expensive and tedious part of the problem.’

 ‘That's why we came up with the idea of using rats, because rats are fast. They can screen an area of 200 square meters in half an hour-something which would take a manual deminer four days,’ Cox stressed.

 APOPO uses positive reinforcement methods that give the rats food rewards for accomplishing tasks such as finding a target or walking across a surface. Then they're trained in scent discrimination: choosing explosive smells over something else to get a food reward.

 Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size-they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they've found. Their reward: a banana.

中譯：

 APOPO組織執行長暨共同創辦人寇克斯表示，一份地雷問題分析指出，地雷偵測是此問題中最昂貴且困乏的部分，其後，這個組織便開始探索新的爆裂物偵測技術。

 寇克斯強調，這就是他們之所以想到運用老鼠的理由，因為老鼠的移動速度很快，半小時內就能檢測200平方公尺的區域，而人工除雷卻得花上4天。

 該組織運用正向強化的方法，讓老鼠完成諸如找到目標或穿越平面等差事，便獎賞食物，然後讓牠們接受氣味辨識的訓練，挑出爆裂物的氣味而非其他味道，以獲取食物獎賞。

 儘管老鼠的視力很差，卻很適合這種工作，牠們有著非凡的嗅覺，以及輕到無法引爆地雷的體型。當探測到地雷時，牠們會在地雷上方輕輕抓撓，這是讓馴養員知道地雷已被找到的信號。牠們獎勵是一根香蕉。（第３篇／共８篇）

-關鍵軍語-

 ※detection:

 The action or process of identifying the presence of something concealed.

 ※deminer:

 One who removes explosive mines.

例句：

 If a mine is prodded too hard or it is not detected, the deminer can suffer injury or death.

 假若地雷被戳的太用力、或是未被探測到的話，掃雷人員就會受傷或喪生。

嘉．言．語．錄

　Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.--Albert Einstein

　唯有嘗試異想天開的那些人，才能成就不可能的事。--亞伯特·愛因斯坦

新聞來源：美國「全國公共廣播電台」網站（NPR）