hat happens after a war ends? Weapons are put down. But there may still be problems. Nations may have a hard time forming new governments. They may owe money or need money to rebuild. And often, they still have landmines.

Question

Landmines are explosives. They are buried under the ground during some wars. How do they work? Suppose someone steps on a landmine. The device senses the weight. That triggers it. The bomb explodes.

Cambodia had 30 years of war. Four to six million landmines and other unexploded weapons were left behind.

Landmines are very dangerous. It can be hard to remove them. People called "de-miners" are trained to do the job. They wear special protective clothes as they walk carefully across areas of land. They check for mines with metal detectors. Why? Many pieces of metal are buried in the ground in Cambodia. This metal often causes false alarms. The work is hard and slow. It's also very dangerous.

In April 2015, Cambodia tried something new. They brought in African giant pouched rats. These rats don't see very well. But they can quickly sniff out buried explosives. The rats are also very light. Their weight doesn't set off landmines.

What happens when a rat smells a landmine? It is trained to scratch the ground. Next, a team comes in. The team safely explodes the landmine. The rats search very quickly. They can cover a lot of ground. They're much faster than people who use metal detectors.

The rats have found more than 45,000 landmines. But Cambodia isn't in the clear yet. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped millions of tons of bombs over Cambodia. Not all of them exploded. Fishermen sometimes catch live bombs in their nets. And hikers often find unexploded bombs and grenades.

The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) and other groups work together. They work to rid Cambodia of all landmines and other unexploded weapons left behind after war.

Question 8


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Which of these is an opinion?

Using metal detectors to find landmines is slow work.
Cambodia has many pieces of metal buried in the ground.
Cambodia began using rats to find landmines in 2015.
Using rats to find landmines is such a clever idea.

Answer 1

The statement that is an opinion is: "Using rats to find landmines is such a clever idea."

This statement expresses a personal judgment or belief about the use of rats in landmine detection, rather than a factual statement. The other options present factual information rather than opinions.