双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第2章:下一个星期(1)
日期:2016-06-02 16:58

(单词翻译:单击)

And then a week later:

接着在一个星期之后:

… The earthenware retort takes the place of a crucible when the essential product is a gas which is very common at high temperatures. I am making a collection of experiments in the order I mean to do them in. I always seem to want to make things from the thing that is commonest in nature and with the least waste in energy.

……在高热实验时,产物往往是气体,这时就不能用坩埚,必须有个陶瓷容器。我要一个一个地做我想做的实验,我想用天然材料来造出一些东西。

For Alan was now conscious of his own ruling passion. The longing for the simple and ordinary which would later emerge in so many ways was not for him a mere 'back to nature' hobby, a holiday from the realities of civilisation. To him it was life itself, a civilisation from which everything else came as a distraction.

艾伦现在已经开始对自己的世界观产生意识了,这种对简朴和自然的向往,不仅体现在化学上,而且体现在今后的很多方面。对他来说,生命本身就是由这些构成的,其它的一切都是多余。

To his parents the priorities were the other way round. Mr Turing was not at all the man for airs and graces; a man who would insist on walking rather than take a taxi, there was a touch of the desert island mentality in his character. But nothing altered the fact that chemistry was merely the amusement allowed to Alan on his holidays and that what mattered was that at thirteen he had to go on to a public school. In the autumn of 1925 Alan sat the Common Entrance for Marlborough, and to the surprise of all did rather well. (He had not been allowed to try for a scholarship.) But at this point John played a decisive part in the life of his strange brother. 'For God's sake don't send him here, ' he said, 'it will crush the life out of him.'

对于图灵夫妇来说,这些都是无关紧要的事,不管怎么说,化学只是艾伦的假期娱乐。他马上就要十三岁了,现在当务之急就是上公学。1925年秋天,艾伦参加了马尔伯勒入学考试,令人吃惊的是,他竟然考得非常好(但没获得奖学金)。这时约翰的一句话,改变了他弟弟的命运,他说:「看在上帝的份儿上,别把艾伦送去,这会毁了他的。」

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