[ti:You Don't Have to Be a Rocket Scientist to Read This]
[ar:Phil Murray]
[al:Words and Their Stories]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]Hello.
[00:14.64]I'm Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, 
[00:19.64]a program in Special English.
[00:22.35]"You do not need to be a rocket scientist.
[00:27.32]" Americans hear these words often. 
[00:31.04]People say them in schools, 
[00:33.59]offices and factories. 
[00:35.96]Broadcasters on radio and television use them.
[00:40.66]This is how you might hear the words used.
[00:45.53]Workers in an office are afraid to try 
[00:50.70]to use their new computer system. 
[00:53.89]Their employer tells them not to be foolish: 
[00:57.94]"You do not need to be a rocket scientist 
[01:02.72]to learn this," he says.
[01:04.18]Or, high school students cannot 
[01:08.64]seem to understand something 
[01:10.86]their teacher is explaining. 
[01:14.41]"Come on," she says. 
[01:16.77]"You do not need to be a rocket scientist 
[01:21.20]to understand this."
[01:22.90]Or, a company that makes soap 
[01:27.32]is trying to sell its product on television. 
[01:31.79]"You do not need to be a rocket scientist 
[01:36.44]to see that our soap cleans better," the company says.
[01:41.57]These words send a strong message. 
[01:45.92]They say that you do not need to be extremely 
[01:51.48]intelligent to understand something.
[01:54.79]How did the expression begin?
[01:58.59]No one seems to know for sure. 
[02:02.21]But an official of the American space agency -- NASA -- 
[02:08.75]says the expression just grew. 
[02:12.22]It grew, he says, 
[02:14.91]because rocket scientists probably 
[02:18.58]are the most intelligent people around.
[02:22.86]Not everyone would agree.
[02:25.81]Some people might be considered 
[02:29.38]more intelligent than rocket scientists. 
[02:32.85]For example, 
[02:34.16]a person who speaks and reads 15 languages, 
[02:39.67]or a medical doctor who operates on the brain.
[02:44.69]Still, many people would agree that 
[02:48.97]there is something special about scientists 
[02:53.84]who build rockets. 
[02:55.45]Maybe it has to do with the mystery of space travel.
[03:01.04]Moving pictures from before World War II 
[03:05.71]showed a man named Buck Rogers 
[03:09.38]landing on the planet Mars. 
[03:12.29]He was a hero 
[03:14.10]who could defeat any enemy from outer space.
[03:18.65]The rocket scientist is a different kind of hero. 
[03:24.60]He or she makes space travel possible.
[03:28.89]Rocket scientists, however, 
[03:31.89]can have problems just like anyone else.
[03:35.68]A Washington rocket scientist tells 
[03:40.29]about a launch that was postponed many, 
[03:44.38]many times. 
[03:45.76]Finally, everything seemed right. 
[03:49.37]Mechanical failures had been repaired. 
[03:53.15]The weather was good.
[03:55.03]The scientists had planned 
[03:58.06]that part of the rocket 
[04:00.09]would fall into the ocean after the launch. 
[04:04.28]All ships and boats within many kilometers 
[04:09.31]of the danger area had been warned. 
[04:12.41]But in the last few seconds a small boat 
[04:17.33]entered the area. 
[04:18.83]Once again, the launch was postponed.
[04:23.09]When the work goes well, 
[04:26.10]most rocket scientists enjoy their jobs. 
[04:30.17]One scientist said, 
[04:32.38]"As a child I loved to build rockets. 
[04:36.60]Now I am grown. 
[04:38.67]I still love to build rockets. 
[04:42.04]And now I get paid for it."
[04:45.40]This program, Words and Their Stories, 
[04:53.85]was written by Jeri Watson.
[04:56.74]I'm Phil Murray.