雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(24)

During the holidays, Alan's father coached him in English. Mr Turing had a great love of literature, although he did not have a mind for abstract ideas. He could recite from memory pages from the Bible, Kipling, and humorous Edwardian novels like Three Men in a Boat. All this was wasted on Alan, whose set work was Hamlet. For a brief moment he pleased his father by saying that at least there was one line he liked. The pleasure was dissipated when Alan explained it was the last line: 'Exeunt, bearing off the bodies....

假期時，圖靈先生爲艾倫指導英文。圖靈先生熱愛文學，他可以背誦幾頁《聖經》、吉卜林作品和愛德華時代的幽默小說，比如《船上的三個人》。但這些對艾倫並沒有幫助，因爲艾倫學習的教材是《哈姆雷特》。後來艾倫說，哈姆雷特至少有一句話讓他喜歡，這令圖靈先生感到了一絲欣慰，直到艾倫做出解釋，說這句話是最後一行，「衆人退下」。

For the summer term of 1928, Alan was moved to yet another form, that of the Reverend W.J. Bensly, to prepare for the examinations. He saw no reason to depart from his usual pattern, and continued to be placed at the bottom by Bensly, who rashly offered to donate a billion pounds to any charity named by Alan, should he pass in Latin. O'Hanlon, more perceptively, had predicted:

1928年夏季學期，艾倫轉到W.J.本斯利教士的年級，以準備認證考試。但他並不覺得有什麼理由，可以讓他改變自己生活方式，所以他還是被本斯利排在最後一名。本斯利魯莽地打賭說，如果艾倫能通過拉丁語考試，他就主動爲艾倫指定的任意慈善機構捐款十億英鎊。奧漢蘭則預測：

He has as good brains as any boy that's been here. They are good enough for him to get through even in 'useless' subjects like Latin, French and English.

他的大腦其實和這裏的其它男孩一樣好，他的大腦本來也應當能通過拉丁語、法語和英語這種「沒什麼用」的科目。

O'Hanlon saw some of the papers that Alan submitted. They were 'astonishingly legible and tidy'. He passed with credits in English, French, elementary mathematics, additional mathematics, physics, chemistry – and Latin. Bensly never paid up, authority having the privilege of being able to change the rules.

最終，奧漢蘭看到了艾倫交的卷子，它們竟然驚人地清晰而整潔。艾倫通過了所有的考試：英語、法語、基礎數學、高級數學、物理、化學，還有拉丁語。本斯利欠下的10億英磅，從沒還清，也沒再提――權威總有改變規則的特權。