Who says Tom and Jerry can't be friends? For the past year, a special Colombian police unit has been locking rats in cages with cats as part of a project to train the rodents to sniff out the more than 100,000 landmines planted mostly by leftist rebels across this conflict-wracked Andean country.
谁说猫和老鼠不可以成为朋友？去年，哥伦比亚的一个特别警署专门把猫和老鼠关在同一个笼子里面。他们使用此方法作为一个试验项目的一部分，训练这些啮齿类动物识别出十万多个地雷的确切位置。这些地雷大多数是左翼反叛分子在这个冲突不断的安第斯山国家中到处埋下的。

Bringing the rats face to face with an enemy allows them to stay more focused once they are released, veterinarian Luisa Mendez, who's been working with the animals for two years, told The Associated Press.
兽医路易莎·门德斯告诉美联社说，“让老鼠和它们的敌人面对面地相处，当它们被放出来后，注意力会更加集中。”门德斯与猫和老鼠们共事已经两年之久了。

The rodents are taught to freeze in front of mines, but had difficulty staying put for fear of being attacked by predators.
经过训练，这些啮齿类动物在地雷面前会一动不动。但是它们由于害怕被捕食者攻击，所以往往很难一直保持静止。

The rats' success rate in mine detection is 96 percent. Unlike dogs, the rats weigh a lot less and therefore don't trigger explosions.
老鼠探测地雷的成功率是96％。由于老鼠的体重比狗要轻得多，因此它们不会引爆地雷。

Notes:
Tom and Jerry：它俩是著名的卡通片《猫和老鼠》(Tom&Jerry)里面的主人公，是世界上最有名的猫和老鼠。