As with public schools, there was a great deal about the ancient universities which had less to do with learning than with social status, with courses in geography and estate management for those of a less academic turn of mind. But the jolly raggings, debaggings and destruction of earnest students' rooms had ended with the Twenties. With the depression, the Thirties had begun, stringent and serious. And nothing could interfere with that precious freedom – a room of one's own. Cambridge rooms had double doors, and the convention was that the occupant who 'sported his oak' by locking the outer door was not at home. At last Alan could work, or think, or just be miserable – for he was far from happy – however and whenever he chose. His room could be as muddled and as untidy as he liked, so long as he made his peace with the college servants. He might be disturbed by Mrs Turing, who would scold him for the dangerous way he cooked breakfast on the gas ring. But these interruptions were very occasional, and after this first year, Alan saw his parents only on fleeting visits to Guildford. He had gained his independence, and was at last left alone.

正如公学一样，有很多古老的大学，相比于在学术界的地位而言，它们在社会上的地位更重要。在这里，没有什么能干涉宝贵的自由――私人房间。剑桥的房间有两个门，按照传统，外门如果关着，就说明主人不在。艾伦终于能够工作和思考了，但他仍然感到抑郁，他无论什么时候都是这样的。只要不把学院的工作人员搞翻脸，他就可以随便把房间弄得多么脏乱。每当图灵夫人来看望他，都会责备他用小煤气炉煮早餐是很危险的，但她并不经常来。第一年过后，艾伦就很少回格尔福特看望父母了。他独立了，他终于独立了。

But there were also the university lectures, which on the whole were of a high standard; the Cambridge tradition was to cover the entire mathematics course with lectures which were in effect definitive textbooks, by lecturers who were themselves world authorities. One of these was G.H. Hardy, the most distinguished British mathematician of his time, who returned in 1931 from Oxford to take up the Sadleirian Chair at Cambridge.

这里还有一些讲座，基本上都是最高标准的。按照剑桥的传统，讲座的内容涵盖数学的所有课程，讲座者都是各自领域的世界级权威。其中之一就是G.H.哈代，那个时代最卓越的数学家之一，1931年从牛津大学回到剑桥，担任萨得莱恩讲座教授。

Alan was now at the centre of scientific life, where there were people such as Hardy and Eddington who at school had been only names. Besides himself, there were eighty-five students who thus embarked upon the mathematics degree course, or 'Tripos' as Cambridge had it, in 1931. But these fell into two distinct groups: those who would offer Schedule A, and those who would sit for Schedule B as well. The former was the standard honours degree, taken like all Cambridge degrees in two Parts, Part I after one year, and Part II two years later. The Schedule B candidates would do the same, but in the final year they would also offer for examination an additional number – up to five or six – of more advanced courses. It was a cumbersome system, which was changed the following year, the Schedule B becoming 'Part III'. But for Alan Turing's year it meant neglecting study for Part I, which was something of a historical relic, hard questions on school mathematics, and instead beginning immediately on the Part II courses, leaving the third year free to study for the advanced Schedule B papers.

艾伦现在处于科学世界的中心，在这里，像哈代和爱丁顿这样的大师比比皆是。在1931年，除了艾伦之外，还有八十五位学生准备攻读数学学位。他们分成两个不同的组：A项目和B项目。A项目是标准学位，分两个部分授予：一年后授予第一部分，两年后再授予第二部分。B项目也要做同样的事，但在最后一年，他们还有额外的几门考试，包括五、六或更多门更高级的课程，相当于学位的第三部分。艾伦·图灵相当于跳过了第一年的课程（这是历史遗留问题），直接开始学习第二部分课程，并要用第三年来学习B项目的高级课程。

The scholars and exhibitioners would be expected to offer Schedule B, and Alan par excellence was among them, one of those who could feel themselves entering another country, in which social rank, money, and politics were insignificant, and in which the greatest figures, Gauss and Newton, had both been born farm boys. David Hilbert, the towering mathematical intellect of the previous thirty years, had put it thus:9 'Mathematics knows no races … for mathematics, the whole cultural world is a single country,' by which he meant no idle platitude, for he spoke as the leader of the German delegation at the 1928 international congress. The Germans had been excluded in 1924 and many refused to attend in 1928.

获得奖学金的学生都希望参加B项目，艾伦也不例外。他感觉进入了另一个世界，在这里，地位和贫富变得毫无意义，最伟大的人物高斯和牛顿，都是出身于农场。30年前，卓越的数学家大卫·希尔伯特说：数学没有种族国界……对于数学家来说，整个文明世界都是同一个国家。这是他在1928年国际数学家大会上，代表德国数学家演讲时说的，他这么说是有原因的，因为德国曾在1924年被该会议拒之门外。