At the time, it was a very striking and surprising fact, that three independent approaches to the idea of doing something in a definite way, had converged upon equivalent concepts.
这三种关于机械过程的不同想法，分别被独立提出，最终又殊途同归，在当时这是一件明显而惊人的事。
The second project concerned the 'new ideas in logic' for a doctoral thesis.
第二个项目，关于博士论文中的"逻辑学的新想法"，
The basic idea was to see if there was any way in which to escape the force of Gdel's result that there would always be true but unprovable assertions within arithmetic.
总体上就是看看有没有什么办法，能够逃脱哥德尔的力量。
This was not a new question, for Rosser, now at Cornell, had produced a paper16 in March 1937 which took it up.
这其实并不是一个新问题，因为罗瑟（现在在康奈尔大学）已经在1937年3月写了一篇关于这个问题的论文。
But Alan planned a rather more general attack on the question.
但艾伦打算在这个问题上发动一场更猛烈的进攻。
His third project was a very ambitious one, for he had decided to try his strength on the central problem of the theory of numbers.
第三的项目是很有野心的，艾伦想在数论的核心问题上施展一番拳脚。
It was not a new interest, for he had possessed Ingham's book on the subject since 1933.
这并不是个新兴趣，早在1933年，艾伦就在读英哈姆关于该领域的文献。
But in 1937 Ingham sent him some recent papers, on learning that he wished to make an attack himself.
在1937年，英哈姆给他寄了一些新的论文，他看了之后，便打算在挑战一下自己。
It was ambitious because the question he chose was one that had long absorbed and defeated the greatest pure mathematicians.
说这个项目很有野心，是因为艾伦选择的问题，长久以来吸引并套牢了许多伟大的数学家。
Although the prime numbers were such ordinary things, it was easy to pose quite baffling questions about them in a few words.
素数是个很平常的东西，但却产生了一系列莫名其妙的问题。