This term has been spent, and the next two terms will have to be spent, in filling in the many gaps in his knowledge and organising it. He thinks very rapidly and is apt to be 'brilliant' but unsound in some of his work. He is seldom defeated by a problem, but his methods are often crude, cumbersome and untidy. But thoroughness and polish will no doubt come in time.

这个学期，以及接下来的两个学期，将用来给他弥补一些知识上的漏洞。他的思维很敏捷，很聪明，但其它方面却不太行。他很少被困难打倒，但他的方法经常是粗糙、笨拙、凌乱的。不过可以相信，迟早会周到和完善的。

He would have found the Higher Certificate dull stuff, compared with the job of organising Einstein. But he cared more about his own failure to fit in with what was expected, now that Christopher had done 'hopelessly better' in the test at the end of term. In the new year of 1929 there was another shuffle, and Alan joined the sixth form proper, so that he did all his classes with Christopher. He made a point of sitting next to him in every class right from the start. Christopher, Alan wrote,

艾伦将会发现，高等认证考试与爱因斯坦的知识相比，是十分枯燥的。但他现在很关心自己的期末成绩，因为克里斯朵夫的考试成绩“高得让人绝望”。1929年新年，还有另外一个插曲，那就是艾伦适时地升到了六年级，这样他就能一直和克里斯朵夫一起上课了。艾伦每堂课都坐在克里斯旁边，艾伦写道：

Unfortunately Christopher was away from classes with a cold for most of January and February, and Alan could work with him only for five weeks of the spring term.

不幸的是，克里斯朵夫一月和二月的大部分时间，都因为感冒而缺席。艾伦只有在春季学期，才能和他一起学习五星期。

Chris' work was always better than mine because I think he was very thorough. He was certainly very clever but he never neglected details, and for instance very seldom made arithmetical slips. He had a great power in practical work of finding out just what was the best way of doing anything. To give an example of his skill, he could estimate when a minute had passed to within half a second. He could sometimes see Venus in the day-time. Of course he was born with very good eyes, but still I think it is typical of him. His skill extended to all sorts of more everyday things, such as driving, fives and billiards.

克里斯的成绩总是比我好，他思考问题非常周到。他很聪明，而且从不忽视细节，比如他很少在算术上犯错。他很擅长给每件事找到一个最好的方法。举个例子说明他的能力，他能默数一分钟时间，误差只有半秒。他白天有时候能看到金星，虽然他的视力确实好，但我还是觉得，这是很惊人的。他的能力还涉及到生活中的所有事情，比如驾驶、五子棋和桌球。

One cannot help admiring such powers and I certainly wanted to be able to do that kind of thing myself. Chris always had a delightful pride in his performances and I think it was this that excited one's competitive instinct to do something which might fascinate him and which he might admire. This pride extended to a pride in his possessions. He used to demonstrate the virtues of his 'Research' fountain pen in a way which made my mouth water and then admitted he was trying to make me jealous.

每个人都会钦佩这样的能力，我当然也希望我能做到。克里斯总是很骄傲地展示这些，我想，这就是他的魅力。他以前经常会展示他那让我流口水的钢笔，后来他承认，他是故意想让我嫉妒。