雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第1章11:聖誕童話劇

The Christmas pantomime was the high spot of the year, although Alan himself later recalled of Christmas 'that as a small child I was quite unable to predict when it would fall, I didn't even realise that it came at regular intervals.' Back at dreary Baston Lodge, his head was buried in maps. He asked for an atlas as a birthday present and pored over it by the hour. He also liked recipes and formulae, and wrote down the ingredients for a dock-leaf concoction for the cure of nettle-stings. The only books he had were little nature-study notebooks, supplemented by his mother reading The Pilgrim's Progress aloud. Once she cheated by leaving out a long theological dissertation, but that made him very cross. 'You spoil the whole thing, ' he shouted, and ran up to his bedroom. Perhaps he was responding to the uncompromising note of Bunyan's plain-speaking Englishman. But once the rules were agreed then they must be followed to the bitter end, without bending or cheating. His Nanny found the same when playing with him.

聖誕童話劇是一年的高潮，但艾倫卻不怎麼感興趣。艾倫後來回憶說，小時候我覺得這劇總是沒完沒了，我不知道它是週期性上演的。後來，他們回到沉悶的巴斯頓住宅，艾倫喜歡上了研究地圖。他過生日時，要了一個地圖作禮物，並且馬上鑽研了一遍。他還喜歡藥方，把治療蕁麻疹的酸模合劑的成分抄下來。他有一本書，是一小本自然科學筆記，這是他母親讀的《天路歷程》的補充資料。有一次，艾賽兒在給他講書時，偷懶跳過了一篇很長的理論論文，這令艾倫生氣地喊叫「你全給搞糟了！」然後跑回了臥室。不管是誰，一旦答應了艾倫的要求，就必須堅持到底，不能變卦也不能騙他。幼兒園的南尼，也發現了這一點，在跟艾倫玩的時候：

The thing that stands out most in my mind was his integrity and his intelligence for a child so young as he then was, also you couldn't camouflage anything from him. I remember one day Alan and I playing together. I played so that he should win, but he spotted it. There was commotion for a few minutes. …

我現在印象最深的就是，他那麼小的時候，就表現出一種正直和智慧，你不能跟他耍任何虛僞的東西。我記得有一次跟艾倫一起玩，我故意讓他贏，但他馬上就指出來，並且吵鬧了好長時間……

In February 1919, Mr Turing returned after three years' separation. It was not easy for him to re-establish his authority with Alan, who had a good line in answering back. He told Alan once to untwist his boot-tongues. 'They should be flat as a pancake, ' he said. 'Pancakes are generally rolled up, ' piped back Alan. If Alan had an opinion, he said that he knew, or that he always knew; he always knew that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was not an apple but a plum. In the summer, Mr Turing took them for a holiday at Ullapool, in the far north-west of Scotland, this time a distinctly posh holiday, complete with gillie. While Mr Turing and John lured the trout, and Mrs Turing sketched the loch, Alan gambolled in the heather. He had the bright idea of gathering the wild bees' honey for their picnic tea. As the bees buzzed past, he observed their flight-paths and by plotting the intersection point located the nest. The Turings were vividly impressed by this direction-finding, more than by the murky honey he retrieved.

1919年2月，在三年的分離之後，朱利葉斯.圖靈先生回來了。然而，現在再想在艾倫面前重建威信，可不是那麼容易的，艾倫已經可以輕鬆地頂嘴了。有一回，朱利葉斯叫他把鞋舌整理好，說鞋舌應該像烙餅一樣平。艾倫立即反駁說，烙餅明明是卷的。艾倫如果有什麼想法，他會習慣說「我知道」或者是「我早就知道」，比如說，他早就知道伊甸園的禁果不是蘋果，而是李子。夏天時，圖靈先生帶他們到阿勒浦度假。阿勒浦在蘇格蘭遙遠的西北地區。因爲有釣魚教練，所以這次豪華的假期令他們覺得非常愉快。朱利葉斯和約翰在釣鱒魚，圖靈夫人在畫海灣的素描，而艾倫則在石楠花叢中自己玩耍。他想了一個收集蜂蜜的好主意，準備在野餐時泡茶。當蜜蜂嗡嗡飛過時，他就在觀察它們的飛行路線，並用標出交會點，確定蜂巢的方位。那點髒乎乎的蜂蜜不算什麼，但他的這種聰明，給朱利葉斯留下了深刻的印象。

But that December his parents steamed away and Alan was left again with the Wards, while John returned to Hazelhurst. Their father was transferred at last to the metropolis of Madras to serve in the Revenue Department, but Alan stagnated in the deathly ennui of St Leonards-on-Sea, concocting recipes. His development was so held back that he had not even learnt how to do long division by the time of his mothers return in 1921, when he was nearly nine.

這一年的11月，艾倫的父母又走了，他又被留在沃德家，而約翰則回到了海茲赫斯特。圖靈先生被調到馬德拉斯的一個大城市，做財政工作，艾倫在聖倫納茲的海邊，每天配配無聊的食譜。1921年，當他的母親再回來時，他已經快要九歲了，但還沒有學會比較長的除法。

His mother perceived him as changed from 'extremely vivacious – even mercurial – making friends with everyone' to being 'unsociable and dreamy'. There was a wistful, withdrawn expression in photographs of his ten-year-old face. She took him away from St Leonards and, after a summer holiday in Brittany, somewhat spoilt by the constant counting of francs, she taught him herself in London, where he alarmed her by looking for iron filings in the gutter with a magnet. Mr Turing, who in May 1921 had again been promoted to be Secretary to the Madras Government Development Department, responsible for agriculture and commerce throughout the Presidency, returned once more in December and they all went to St Moritz, where Alan learnt to ski.

他母親發現，這時的艾倫發生了，從極度活潑，變得不愛交際了。在照片中，他那十歲的小臉龐，甚至還透着強烈的抑鬱和孤僻。於是，她帶着艾倫離開了聖倫納茲，在法國西北部的布列塔尼度過暑假之後，他們來到了倫敦，她在那裏自己教艾倫。在倫敦，艾倫總是喜歡拿一塊磁鐵，在下水道里找鐵屑玩，這讓艾賽爾很操心。1921年5月，朱利葉斯.圖靈被提拔爲馬德拉斯政府發展部副部長，負責農業和商業。12月，他回到英國，全家一起去聖摩瑞茲過冬，艾倫在這裏學會了滑雪。

Miss Taylor, the headmistress of St Michael's, had said that Alan 'had genius', but this diagnosis was not allowed to modify the programme. In the new year of 1922, Alan was launched on the next stage of the process and was sent off to Hazelhurst like his brother.

然後，艾倫該去上學了，可是聖邁克爾學校卻不要他。女校長泰勒說，艾倫確實挺有天分，但是學校也有學校的制度。這事兒一直拖到1922年新年，艾倫的人生終於走進了新階段，他跟哥哥一樣，來到海茲赫斯特。