雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(1)

And then a week later:

接着在一個星期之後：

… The earthenware retort takes the place of a crucible when the essentiAl product is a gas which is very common at high temperatures. I am making a collection of experiments in the order I mean to do them in. I always seem to want to make things from the thing that is commonest in nature and with the least waste in energy.

……在高熱實驗時，產物往往是氣體，這時就不能用坩堝，必須有個陶瓷容器。我要一個一個地做我想做的實驗，我想用天然材料來造出一些東西。

For Alan was now conscious of his own ruling passion. The longing for the simple and ordinary which would later emerge in so many ways was not for him a mere 'back to nature' hobby, a holiday from the realities of civilisation. To him it was life itself, a civilisation from which everything else came as a distraction.

艾倫現在已經開始對自己的世界觀產生意識了，這種對簡樸和自然的嚮往，不僅體現在化學上，而且體現在今後的很多方面。對他來說，生命本身就是由這些構成的，其它的一切都是多餘。

To his parents the priorities were the other way round. Mr Turing was not at all the man for airs and graces; a man who would insist on walking rather than take a taxi, there was a touch of the desert island mentality in his character. But nothing altered the fact that chemistry was merely the amusement allowed to Alan on his holidays and that what mattered was that at thirteen he had to go on to a public school. In the autumn of 1925 Alan sat the Common Entrance for Marlborough, and to the surprise of all did rather well. (He had not been allowed to try for a scholarship.) But at this point John played a decisive part in the life of his strange brother. 'For God's sake don't send him here, ' he said, 'it will crush the life out of him.'

對於圖靈夫婦來說，這些都是無關緊要的事，不管怎麼說，化學只是艾倫的假期娛樂。他馬上就要十三歲了，現在當務之急就是上公學。1925年秋天，艾倫參加了馬爾伯勒入學考試，令人吃驚的是，他竟然考得非常好（但沒獲得獎學金）。這時約翰的一句話，改變了他弟弟的命運，他說：「看在上帝的份兒上，別把艾倫送去，這會毀了他的。」