Is adobe acrobat safe to install?

FatMac>MacPro is correct about using Preview to read PDF's. It is built in, reliable and kept up to date by Apple software updates.

Adobe Reader has had vulnerabilities that can cause your Mac to be attacked via malicious PDF's. Keeping Reader up to date is essential for good security, however Adobe updaters nag so much that it is simpler to avoid installing it if at all possible.

PC users recommend it because they had no PDF support for so long, OS X has always had PDF support from Apple.

If the "translation" on the Flash drive is a PDF file, you can try Apple's Preview, which is already on your Mac and is the default software for reading PDF's. In some cases, I've found Adobe Reader can do a better job but Preview is quite capable.

It's Adobe Reader, not Adobe Acrobat, that you want.

Adobe Reader is free, Adobe Acrobat is not cheap.

Yyes. It's Adobe Flash that you want to avoid.