雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第7章:運轉起來(46)
To requisition anything at All required an act of skilful and aggressive diplomacy in handling the administrators.
All they could obtain was a double-beam oscilloscope and an audio-frequency Hewlett-Packard oscillator.
他們只得到了一臺雙線示波器，還有一臺惠普音頻振盪器。They even had to fight for this, first being fobbed off with an inferior one, and having to demand something better from SCU3's Controller, Colonel Maltby.
就連這些，他們也費了好大的勁。他們起初被一臺簡易示波器給打發了，於是只好向第3特別通信組的麥特比上校申請像樣一點的東西。
For Alan, the process was as baffling as it ever was for Alice in the Looking Glass shop, trying to locate what she needed on the White Queen's shelves.
對艾倫來說，這個過程的複雜程度，就像愛麗絲試圖在白皇后的櫃子上找東西。Dealing with Maltby on the telephone drove Alan to extremes of nervousness, and people remarked upon how his speech, halting at the best of times, was on these occasions an almost indecipherable scrambling operation itself.
他在電話中與麥特比對話時，感到非常緊張，其他人評論說，他說話時的停頓完全沒有規律，簡直可以作爲密鑰來使用。He hated the showmanship that was required in negotiating for equipment.
艾倫討厭那些表演性的腔調，It was forever his bitter complaint that more adept players—'Charlatans', 'Politicians', 'Salesmen'—would get their way not through expertise but through clever talk.
他永遠都在憤憤不平地質問，那些學術騙子、政客和商人，爲什麼不需要真本事，只需要油腔滑調就能成功。He still tended to expect reason to prevail as if by magic.
他仍然期望，凡事都要有理由。
