雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(30)
This term has been spent, and the next two terms will have to be spent, in filling in the many gaps in his knowledge and organising it. He thinks very rapidly and is apt to be 'brilliant' but unsound in some of his work. He is seldom defeated by a problem, but his methods are often crude, cumbersome and untidy. But thoroughness and polish will no doubt come in time.
這個學期，以及接下來的兩個學期，將用來給他彌補一些知識上的漏洞。他的思維很敏捷，很聰明，但其它方面卻不太行。他很少被困難打倒，但他的方法經常是粗糙、笨拙、凌亂的。不過可以相信，遲早會周到和完善的。
He would have found the Higher Certificate dull stuff, compared with the job of organising Einstein. But he cared more about his own failure to fit in with what was expected, now that Christopher had done 'hopelessly better' in the test at the end of term. In the new year of 1929 there was another shuffle, and Alan joined the sixth form proper, so that he did all his classes with Christopher. He made a point of sitting next to him in every class right from the start. Christopher, Alan wrote,
艾倫將會發現，高等認證考試與愛因斯坦的知識相比，是十分枯燥的。但他現在很關心自己的期末成績，因爲克里斯朵夫的考試成績“高得讓人絕望”。1929年新年，還有另外一個插曲，那就是艾倫適時地升到了六年級，這樣他就能一直和克里斯朵夫一起上課了。艾倫每堂課都坐在克里斯旁邊，艾倫寫道：
Unfortunately Christopher was away from classes with a cold for most of January and February, and Alan could work with him only for five weeks of the spring term.
不幸的是，克里斯朵夫一月和二月的大部分時間，都因爲感冒而缺席。艾倫只有在春季學期，才能和他一起學習五星期。
Chris' work was always better than mine because I think he was very thorough. He was certainly very clever but he never neglected details, and for instance very seldom made arithmetical slips. He had a great power in practical work of finding out just what was the best way of doing anything. To give an example of his skill, he could estimate when a minute had passed to within half a second. He could sometimes see Venus in the day-time. Of course he was born with very good eyes, but still I think it is typical of him. His skill extended to all sorts of more everyday things, such as driving, fives and billiards.
克里斯的成績總是比我好，他思考問題非常周到。他很聰明，而且從不忽視細節，比如他很少在算術上犯錯。他很擅長給每件事找到一個最好的方法。舉個例子說明他的能力，他能默數一分鐘時間，誤差只有半秒。他白天有時候能看到金星，雖然他的視力確實好，但我還是覺得，這是很驚人的。他的能力還涉及到生活中的所有事情，比如駕駛、五子棋和桌球。
One cannot help admiring such powers and I certainly wanted to be able to do that kind of thing myself. Chris always had a delightful pride in his performances and I think it was this that excited one's competitive instinct to do something which might fascinate him and which he might admire. This pride extended to a pride in his possessions. He used to demonstrate the virtues of his 'Research' fountain pen in a way which made my mouth water and then admitted he was trying to make me jealous.
每個人都會欽佩這樣的能力，我當然也希望我能做到。克里斯總是很驕傲地展示這些，我想，這就是他的魅力。他以前經常會展示他那讓我流口水的鋼筆，後來他承認，他是故意想讓我嫉妒。
