雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第1章10:印度公務員

The Turings could afford very little, since even in the well paid ICS it was always necessary to save for the future. What they had to afford could be summed up in two words: public school. In this respect the war, the inflation, the talk of revolution changed nothing. The Turing boys had to go to public schools, and everything had to be subordinated to this demand. Never, indeed, would Mr Turing allow his sons to forget the debt they owed him for a public school education. Alan's duty was to go through with the system without causing trouble, and in particular to learn Latin, which was required for entrance to a public school.

儘管印度公務員的薪水並不低，但圖靈一家的生活並不寬裕，因爲他們現在要爲將來攢錢，他們必須要爲一件事買單，那就是公學。至於戰爭，革命，通貨膨脹，這些似乎都跟他們沒關係，兩個孩子要上公學，這就是他們唯一關心的事。艾倫現在的主要責任就是別惹禍，次要責任是學拉丁文，這兩樣事，是上公學的必要條件。

So as Germany collapsed, and the bitter armistice began, Alan was set to work on copy-books and Latin primers. He later told a joke against his own first exercise, in which he translated 'the table' as omit mensa because of the cryptic footnote 'omit' attached to the word 'the'. He was not interested in Latin, and for that matter he had great difficulty in writing. His brain seemed barely coordinated with his hand. A whole decade of fighting with scratchy nibs and leaking fountain-pens was to begin, in which nothing he wrote was free from crossings-out, blots, and irregular script which veered from stilted to depraved.

隨着德國的潰敗，休戰期開始了。艾倫對拉丁文實在是一點興趣也沒有，所以在寫作方面遇到了很大困難。他的手和腦似乎無法合作，寫作就是跟筆做鬥爭，這持鬥爭持續了整整十年。在這期間，凡是他寫的東西，要麼就是打滿了叉，要麼就是把紙弄得奇髒。

But at this stage he was still the bright, jolly little boy. On Christmas visits to the Trustram Eves in Earls Court, his uncle Bertie liked making Alan the butt of his practical jokes because of his innocent giggly humour. These occasions were more of a trial for John, who was now considered to be responsible for his younger brother's appearance and behaviour – a responsibility that no human being would ever lightly shoulder. To make matters worse, as John saw it,

但儘管這樣，此時的艾倫仍是一個陽光開朗的男孩。在聖誕節去拜訪圖拉斯坦·伊夫時，他的叔叔伯蒂很喜歡給他講笑話，因爲他總是天真無邪地咯咯傻笑。然而，這樣假期對於約翰來說，簡直就像惡夢一樣，因爲他要照顧艾倫，這是一個誰也無法輕鬆勝任的事。約翰描述道：

he was dressed in sailor suits, according to the convention of the day (they suited him well); I know nothing in the whole range of the cussedness of inanimate objects to compete with a sailor suit. Out of the boxes there erupted collars and ties and neckerchiefs and cummerbunds and oblong pieces of flannel with lengthy tapes attached; but how one put these pieces together, and in what order, was beyond the wit of man. Not that my brother cared a button – an apt phrase, many seemed to be off – for it was all the same thing to him which shoe was on which foot or that it was only three minutes to the fatal breakfast gong. Somehow or another I managed by skimping such trumpery details as Alan's teeth, ears, etc, but I was exhausted by these nursery attentions and it was only when we were taken off to the pantomime that I was able to forget my fraternal cares. Even then Alan was quite a nuisance, complaining loudly of the scene of green dragons and other monsters in 'Where the Rainbow Ends'. …

他穿着水兵服趕時髦，他倒是挺合身，但是我完全不曉得，還有什麼東西能比水兵服更難收拾。領子、領帶、圍巾、腰帶、褲子，在箱子外面扔得到處都是，怎麼把它們弄整齊，根本就是超出了人類的智力。我弟弟一個釦子都不管，我一點不誇張，他什麼東西都不管，哪隻腳穿哪隻鞋，對他來說根本沒有區別。我得幫他處理所有的事，包括刷牙和摳耳朵，這些事讓我精疲力竭，只有在我們去看童話劇時，我才能暫時不用爲他操心。但就算在這時，艾倫仍然非常煩人，《彩虹盡頭》裏的綠龍和怪獸一出場，他就開叫大喊大叫……