VOA慢速英語：教宗方濟(jì)各給國際空間站打去電話

Pope Francis Makes Phone Call to Outer Space

教宗方濟(jì)各給國際空間站打去電話

Here's What's Trending Today...

這里是今日熱點節(jié)目。

Pope Francis is making his first telephone call above the earth -- and into space.

教宗方濟(jì)各首次在地球上同太空通話。

On Thursday, the pope called the International Space Station. Six astronauts are currently working there -- three Americans, two Russians and one Italian.

周四這天，教宗方濟(jì)各撥通了國際空間站的電話。目前有6名宇航員在那工作，包括3名美國人，兩名俄羅斯人和一名意大利人。

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli was aboard the space station for the first-ever papal call, made in 2011 by Pope Benedict. He returned to space in July. As he did in 2011, he acted as a translator Thursday during his second papal call. Francis asked Nespoli and the five other astronauts many questions. Some were simple, such as ‘why did you choose to become an astronaut?' Other questions were much deeper and more complex.

意大利宇航員保羅·內(nèi)斯波利(Paolo Nespoli)2011年在國際空間站上接到了教宗本篤十六世打來的有史以來首通“教宗來電。”。今年7月份他又回到了國際空間站。周四他在第二通“教宗來電”時跟2011年一樣，又擔(dān)任了翻譯。方濟(jì)各向內(nèi)斯波利和其他五位宇航員提出了很多問題。有些問題很簡單，例如“你為什么選擇成為宇航員?”還有些問題就要深刻和復(fù)雜得多了。

Russian astronaut Sergey Ryazanskiy told Francis that his grandfather, a Soviet engineer who helped build Sputnik, had inspired him.

俄羅斯宇航員謝爾蓋·梁贊斯基(Sergey Ryazanskiy)告訴教宗方濟(jì)各，他的父親，一名蘇聯(lián)工程師，幫助建造了斯普特尼克(51VOA注：世界上第一顆人造衛(wèi)星)，這激勵了他。

Some of the responses he received from the Russian astronauts marked a small step in improving the Vatican's relations with Orthodox Russia. Francis has worked hard to improve the relationship. Last year, he became the first pope in 1,000 years to meet with the Russian Orthodox patriarch.

教宗從俄羅斯宇航員那里得到的一些答復(fù)標(biāo)志著梵蒂岡和俄羅斯東正教在改善關(guān)系上又邁進(jìn)了一小步。教宗方濟(jì)各一直努力改善兩者的關(guān)系。去年，他成為了近1000年以來第一位會見俄羅斯東正教牧首的教宗。

The other Russian aboard the International Space Station is Alexander Misurkin. He responded to Francis's question about how the astronauts understood the Italian poet Dante's line that love is the force that moves the universe.

國際空間站上另一位俄羅斯宇航員是亞歷山大·米蘇爾金(Alexander Misurkin)。他回答了教宗方濟(jì)各關(guān)于宇航員如何理解意大利詩人但丁那句“愛是推動宇宙的力量”這個問題。

Misurkin told the pope that he had been reading Antoine de St. Exupery's "The Little Prince" while in space. He explained that the young prince's understanding of love affected him.

"Love is the force that gives you strength to give your life for someone else," he told the pope.

米蘇爾金回答說，他在空間站的時候一直在閱讀安東尼·德·圣-?？颂K佩里(Antoine de St. Exupery)所著的《小王子》。他解釋說，小王子理解的愛影響了他。他告訴教宗：“愛賦予你力量，讓你甘于為他人奉獻(xiàn)。”

Francis responded by saying "It's clear you have understood the message that St. Exupery so poetically explained, and that you Russians have in your blood, in your humanistic and religious tradition."

教宗方濟(jì)各回應(yīng)說：“很顯然你已經(jīng)明白了圣-埃克蘇佩里如此詩意地解釋出來的信息，這些已經(jīng)融入了你們俄羅斯人的血液、人文和宗教傳統(tǒng)之中。”

Pope Francis considered a career as a chemist before becoming a priest. He has often expressed his concern for the environment and care for what he calls "our common home."

教宗方濟(jì)各在成為牧師之前想成為一名化學(xué)家。他經(jīng)常對環(huán)境表示憂心，并且很關(guān)心他所謂的“我們共同的家園。”

Space station commander Randy Bresnik, an American, told Francis that what he enjoyed most about being in space was seeing "God's creation maybe a little bit from his perspective."

國際空間站站長蘭迪·布雷斯尼克(Franky Bresnik)告訴教宗，他在太空中最喜歡的就是看到，“從他的角度來看，上帝創(chuàng)造萬物可能微不足道。”(51VOA注：意思是宇宙浩瀚，地球只是非常渺小的一部分。)

Bresnik, a U.S. Marine, flew combat missions during the Iraq war. He told Francis that in space there are "no borders, there is no conflict, it's just peaceful."

布雷斯尼克在伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭期間作為美國海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊員執(zhí)行過飛行作戰(zhàn)任務(wù)。他對教宗方濟(jì)各表示，太空中“沒有邊境，沒有沖突，只有和平。”

Nespoli thanked the pope for his deep questions. He said that most of the crew's days are spent performing highly technical and mechanical tasks.

內(nèi)絲波利感謝了教宗方濟(jì)各提出的深刻問題。他說，國際空間站上的船員大部分時間都花在執(zhí)行高科技和機(jī)械性的任務(wù)上。

"You brought us higher up," he said. "You took us away from the daily mechanics of things and made us think about things that are bigger than us.”

他說：“你提高了我們的層次，把我們從日常機(jī)械事務(wù)中拉出來，讓我們思考一些更加重要的問題。”

Since his launch in July, Nespoli has published beautiful photos of Italy from space on his Twitter page; one of his recent pictures shows the Alps from 400 kilometers above the Earth.

自從7月份發(fā)射進(jìn)入太空以來，內(nèi)斯波利在推特上發(fā)布了很多意大利的美景照片。他最近發(fā)布的其中一幅照片展示了從地面400公里處觀看阿爾卑斯山。

Francis is known for making out-of-the-blue -- or unexpected -- phone calls. But Thursday's call had been planned for a long time. The European Space Agency made the arrangements, with NASA's technical support.

教宗方濟(jì)各以撥打讓人意想不到的電話而聞名。但是周四的電話已經(jīng)計劃了很長時間。歐洲宇航局在美國宇航局的技術(shù)支持下做出了這次安排。

I'm Alice Bryant.

我是愛麗絲·布萊恩特。