雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(108)
Neville was a third-year mathematics student, then twenty-four, but mathematics was not a cement but an embarrassment in their relationship, for although Neville had won a scholarship, this was 'a flash in the pan'.
It made Neville feel inferior that they were in this respect on quite different planes.
這使奈維爾在這個方面覺得很自卑。Once Alan said, 'When you know what the Entscheidungs problem is, you will know what a great mathematician I am,' with a sad twinkle, but Neville never did find out.
有一次圖靈說："當你理解了可判定性，你就會明白我是個偉大的數學家。"他的眼裏閃着悲涼的光芒，可是奈維爾卻從來都沒能理解。
Neville thought he was very ordinary compared with the more glamorous side of King's, and that he was just 'the best that Alan could get'.
奈維爾覺得自己在國王學院是很平凡的，但他已經是圖靈能交到的最好的朋友了。But for Alan, it was probably an attraction that Neville, a Geordie from Sunderland Grammar School and the Army, was someone down to earth and rather tough.
對於圖靈來說，這也許恰恰是奈維爾吸引他的地方，他很務實，也很強硬。His problem lay far more in having to remove the anaesthetising shell with which he had protected himself for so long. Perhaps it was too late.
圖靈的問題在於，如何把戴了太久的面具摘下來，他實在戴了太久了。To Neville, it seemed that Alan had enjoyed ill luck with people, and that it was not surprising that he was keen on machines to replace them.
對奈維爾來說，圖靈似乎對人很沒興趣，他對沒有生命的東西反而充滿熱情。Once he said to Neville, lying on his bed, 'I have more contact with this bed, than with other people.'
有一次，圖靈躺在牀上，對奈維爾："我與這張牀的關係，比與任何人都更親密。"He also unburied a little of the past.
他還透露了一些他的過去，Christopher still prodded him, if only because he would faint at the mention of blood or dissections in the physiology lectures.
克里斯朵夫仍在刺激着他，還有隻要在他面前提到血或解剖，他就會立刻暈厥。
