VOA慢速英语:You Don't Have to Be a Rocket Scientist to Read This

Hello. I'm Phil Murray with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English.
您好！我是Phil Murray。这里是美国之音慢速英语词汇掌故节目。

"You do not need to be a rocket scientist." Americans hear these words often. People say them in schools, offices and factories. Broadcasters on radio and television use them.
"You do not need to be a rocket scientist." 美国人经常会听到这话。人们在学校、办公室和工厂经常会说这句话，电台和电视台也经常使用。

This is how you might hear the words used.
下面是你可能听到的一些使用。

Workers in an office are afraid to try to use their new computer system. Their employer tells them not to be foolish. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to learn this," he says.
办公室工作人员都不敢尝试使用他们的新电脑系统。他们的老板说别犯傻了. “你不必成为火箭科学家就能学会这个。”

Or, high school students cannot seem to understand something their teacher is explaining. "Come on," she says. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand this."
或者，高中学生似乎无法理解老师正在讲解的东西。“来吧，”老师说：“你不必成为火箭科学家就能理解这些的。”

Or, a company that makes soap is trying to sell its product on television. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that our soap cleans better," the company says.
或者，一家生产肥皂的公司试图在电视上出售其产品。“你不必成为火箭科学家就能看出我们的肥皂清洁效果更好。”

These words send a strong message. They say that you do not need to be extremely intelligent to understand something.
这些话传达出一个强烈的信息。他们说，你不必非常聪明就能明白某些事物。

How did the expression begin?
这种表达是怎么来的呢？

No one seems to know for sure. But an official of the American space agency, NASA, says the expression just grew. It grew, he says, because rocket scientists probably are the most intelligent people around.
似乎没有人确切地知道。但美国宇航局一位官员称，这种说法是自然而然地形成的。他说，因为火箭科学家可能是人群中最聪明的人。

Not everyone would agree.
并不是每个人都同意这种说法。

Some people might be considered more intelligent than rocket scientists. For example, a person who speaks and reads fifteen languages, or a medical doctor who operates on the brain.
有的人可能被认为比火箭科学家更加聪明。例如，一个会说15种语言的人，或脑科手术医生。

Still, many people would agree that there is something special about scientists who build rockets. Maybe it has to do with the mystery of space travel.
尽管如此，许多人认同制造火箭的科学家有特殊的地方。或许它与神秘的太空旅行有关。

Moving pictures from before World War Two showed a man named Buck Rogers landing on the planet Mars. He was a hero who could defeat any enemy from outer space.
来自二战前的影片展示了一位名为Buck Rogers的男子登陆火星。他是一位能够打败任何来自外太空敌人的英雄。

The rocket scientist is a different kind of hero. He or she makes space travel possible.
火箭科学家是一种别样的英雄。他（她）们使太空旅行成为可能。

Rocket scientists, however, can have problems just like anyone else.
但是，火箭科学家也像其他人一样会遇到问题。

A Washington rocket scientist tells about a launch that was postponed many, many times. Finally, everything seemed right. Mechanical failures had been repaired. The weather was good.
华盛顿一位火箭科学家谈到一次推迟了许多许多次的发射。最终，一切似乎都妥当了，机械故障已被修复，天气也很好。

The scientists had planned that part of the rocket would fall into the ocean after the launch. All ships and boats within many kilometers of the danger area had been warned. But in the last few seconds a small boat entered the area. Once again, the launch was postponed.
科学家们曾计划在发射后，火箭的一部分将掉入海洋。危险区域很多公里内的船只都已被警告。但在最后几秒钟，一艘小船进入该区域。又一次，发射被推迟了。

When the work goes well, most rocket scientists enjoy their jobs. One scientist said, "As a child I loved to build rockets. Now I am grown. I still love to build rockets. And now I get paid for it."
当工作进展顺利时，大部分火箭科学家都很享受自己的工作。一位科学家说，“当我还是孩子时就喜欢造火箭。现在我已长大，我仍然喜爱造火箭，而且现在还因此拿到报酬。”

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