双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第5章:解谜接力赛(142)
日期:2018-09-23 14:40

(单词翻译:单击)

There was one point of success: they knew the wiring of the new fourth wheel.
有一个欣慰的消息是,他们知道第四个新转盘的连线关系。
The fourth wheel had been sitting in a 'neutral' position on the U-boat machines during late 1941.
1941年末,第四个转盘已经安装到潜艇谜机上了,只是处于挂起状态。
Once in December a U-boat cipher operator had carelessly let it move out of this position while enciphering a message;
在12月时,有一个潜艇密码操作员在加密一条信息时,不小心启用了它,发送之后发现有误,又用正确的设定重新发送了一遍。
Hut 8 had noted the ensuing gibberish, and also spotted the re-transmission of the message on the correct setting.
8号营房先后截获了这两条信息,并由此推导出了新转盘的连线关系。
This elementary blunder of repetition, so easy to make while the Germans held complete trust in their machines, had allowed the British analysts to deduce the wiring of the wheel.
德国过于信任谜机了,所以很容易犯这种低级错误。
Armed with this information, they were in fact able to break the traffic for 23 and 24 February and for 14 March—days for which they had particularly clear 'cribs' from messages that had also been enciphered in other, breakable, systems.
在这个帮助下,他们破译了2月23日,24日和3月14日的通信。他们从其它能够破译的谜机中找出床位注,来破解这几天的通信,
But it took twenty-six times too long: six Bombes working for seventeen days were employed.
但是花了26倍的工作量,6台炸弹机同时工作了17天。
This development well illustrated the chanciness of the whole endeavour.
这件事充分体现了破译工作的偶然性,
Had this enlarged Enigma been adopted from the start, the treasure hunt might never had got off the Polish ground.
假如德国一开始就使用这种扩展谜机,那么寻宝游戏也就只能进行到波兰那里为止了。
'Faster, faster!', the White Queen now cried.
"快点!快点!"白皇后嚷着。
But nothing could make Bombes go twenty-six times faster overnight.
但是现在没什么办法能让炸弹机一夜之间加快到26倍。

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