双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第8章:面朝大海(205)

Alan's letter also explained that he went down to Sherborne to lecture to some boys on computers.

图灵还在信中写道：我还去了一趟舍尔伯尼，给一些男孩讲计算机。

Really quite a treat, in many ways.

从很多方面来说，这是个美差。

They were so luscious, and so well mannered, with a little dash of pertness, and Sherborne itself quite unspoilt.

舍尔伯尼真是世外桃源，那些男孩十分诱人，他们非常有礼貌，还带着一丝高傲。

His schooldays might well have seemed simple and safe, in comparison with the world in which he now waited for the next turn of the screw.

与接下来的故事相比，图灵的这段校园时光，可以说是既轻松又安全。

This visit had been on 9 March, and in his talk to the science society,

他是在3月9日到那里去的，给一个社团做了一场讲座，

Mr Turing made a very clear analogy between a stupid clerk, with his mechanical calculating device, paper to write his workings on, and his instructions, and the electronic brain which combined all these in one.

图灵详细地对比了笨拙的计算人员和他的机械化计算设备，还讲了他的论文、计算机指令，以及电子大脑。

All that was necessary was to put the instructions into a tape machine and the mass of wires, valves, resistors, condensors, and chokes did the rest, the answer appearing on another tape...

这种机器是由一堆乱糟糟的电线、电子管、电阻、电容和电感组成的，只要将指令纸带输进去，答案就会在另一条纸带上输出来……

The existence of this society, the Alchemists, since 1943, was a concession to the modern world, but otherwise Sherborne was indeed 'unspoilt'.

这个社团的名字叫"炼金者"，成立于1943年，它的存在，标志着舍尔伯尼对现代科学的某种让步。但是除此之外，舍尔伯尼确实是"世外桃源"。

neither war nor end of empire had much modified the training of administrators for the 1980s and 1990s.

无论是世界大战还是王权统治的终结，都没有使它发生什么改变。

There were, however, more and more cracks appearing in Alan's stiff upper lip,

然而，图灵的那种坚毅的气质却在逐渐消逝，

and although deploring his tendency to 'fritter his time away', he was not finding it quite so important to keep his nose permanently to the grindstone.

虽然他为"碌碌无为"而痛惜，但他已经不再执著于工作了。