Neville was a third-year mathematics student, then twenty-four, but mathematics was not a cement but an embarrassment in their relationship, for although Neville had won a scholarship, this was 'a flash in the pan'.
奈维尔是三年级的数学系学生，当时24岁，然而数学并不是他们的粘合剂，反而成了他们之间的尴尬。虽然奈维尔获得了奖学金，但只是昙花一现，
It made Neville feel inferior that they were in this respect on quite different planes.
这使奈维尔在这个方面觉得很自卑。
Once Alan said, 'When you know what the Entscheidungs problem is, you will know what a great mathematician I am,' with a sad twinkle, but Neville never did find out.
有一次图灵说："当你理解了可判定性，你就会明白我是个伟大的数学家。"他的眼里闪着悲凉的光芒，可是奈维尔却从来都没能理解。
Neville thought he was very ordinary compared with the more glamorous side of King's, and that he was just 'the best that Alan could get'.
奈维尔觉得自己在国王学院是很平凡的，但他已经是图灵能交到的最好的朋友了。
But for Alan, it was probably an attraction that Neville, a Geordie from Sunderland Grammar School and the Army, was someone down to earth and rather tough.
对于图灵来说，这也许恰恰是奈维尔吸引他的地方，他很务实，也很强硬。
His problem lay far more in having to remove the anaesthetising shell with which he had protected himself for so long. Perhaps it was too late.
图灵的问题在于，如何把戴了太久的面具摘下来，他实在戴了太久了。
To Neville, it seemed that Alan had enjoyed ill luck with people, and that it was not surprising that he was keen on machines to replace them.
对奈维尔来说，图灵似乎对人很没兴趣，他对没有生命的东西反而充满热情。
Once he said to Neville, lying on his bed, 'I have more contact with this bed, than with other people.'
有一次，图灵躺在床上，对奈维尔："我与这张床的关系，比与任何人都更亲密。"
He also unburied a little of the past.
他还透露了一些他的过去，
Christopher still prodded him, if only because he would faint at the mention of blood or dissections in the physiology lectures.
克里斯朵夫仍在刺激着他，还有只要在他面前提到血或解剖，他就会立刻晕厥。