《艾伦图灵传》第1章8:图灵夫人

 This was not home, but it had to do. The parents came to England as often as they could, but even when they did, that was not home either. When Mrs Turing returned in spring 1915, she took the boys into furnished and serviced rooms in St Leonards – gloomy places decorated by samplers embroidered¹ with the more sacrificial kind of hymn². By this time Alan could talk, and proved himself the kind of little boy who could attract the attention of strangers with precocious³, rather penetratingly high-pitched comments, but also a naughty and wilful⁴ one, in whom winning ways could rapidly give way to tantrums when he was thwarted⁵. Experiment, as with planting his broken toy sailors in the ground, hoping they would grow afresh, was easily confused with naughtiness. Alan was slow to learn that indistinct line that separated initiative from disobedience and resisted the duties of his childhood. Late, untidy and cheeky, he had constant battles with his mother, Nanny and Mrs Ward⁶.

但是不管怎么样，这里都不是家，虽然图灵夫妇尽可能地多回英国，但即便在他们回来时，这个地方也不是家。图灵夫人1915年春天回来时，艾伦已经会说话了，他显得格外早熟，很会吸引别人的注意。在遇到挫折时，他非常倔强。他还把坏掉的木偶种到土里，希望能长出一个新的，不知道他是在做实验还是在故意捣乱。他还慢慢学会控制合作与不合作之间的界线，开始拒绝做一些小孩子该做的事。再后来，他开始动不动就跟南尼或沃德夫人吵嘴。

Mrs Turing returned to India in the autumn of 1915, saying to Alan, 'You'll be a good boy, won't you?', to which Alan replied 'Yes, but sometimes I shall forget!' But this separation was only for six months, for in March 1916 Sahib and Memsahib together braved the U-boats, wearing lifebelts all the way from Suez to Southampton. Mr Turing took his family for a holiday in the Western Highlands, where they stayed in an hotel at Kimelfort, and John was introduced to trout⁷ fishing. At the end of his leave, in August 1916, they decided⁸ not to risk travelling together again, but instead to separate for the next three-year period. Alan's father returned to India, and his mother resumed a double exile at St Leonards.

1915年秋天，图灵夫人要回印度了，她临走时问艾伦：你答应过妈妈，会学得很乖的，对不对？艾伦回答：对，但有时我就忘了！这次他们只分离了六个月，1916年3月，图灵夫妇冒着德军U型潜艇的危险，一路穿着救生衣，顺着苏伊士运河回到南安普顿。他们全家人去西部高地度假，住在开梅福德的一家酒店，图灵先生在那里教约翰钓鱼。1916年8月，他们决定不再冒这个危险了，未来的三年不能再见面。图灵先生返回印度，而艾伦的母亲则在圣伦纳兹留下来，和艾伦一起，过双重背井离乡的日子。

The Great War had remarkably⁹ little direct impact on the Turing family. The year 1917, with the mechanised slaughter¹⁰, the U-boat siege, the air raids, the appearance of America and the Russian revolution, set up the pattern which was to be the newborn generation's inheritance. But it had no private meaning except in keeping Mrs Turing in England. John was packed off to a preparatory school called Hazelhurst near Tunbridge Wells in Kent in May of that year, and thereafter Mrs Turing had only Alan about her. Church-going was one of her favourite pastimes, and in St Leonards she adopted a certain very high Anglican church, where Alan was dragged every Sunday for the communion service. He did not like the incense¹¹, and called it 'the church with the bad smells'. Mrs Turing also pressed on with her water-colours, for which she enjoyed a definite talent. She took Alan out on her sketching¹² parties where, with big eyes and sailor hat, and with quaint¹³ expressions of his own like 'quockling' for the screech¹⁴ of seagulls, he delighted the lady art students.

第一次世界大战，对图灵一家几乎没有什么影响。对于这一代人来说，世界给他们留下的遗产，似乎就是1917年的机械化屠杀，U型潜艇封锁，飞机地毯式轰炸，还有美俄革命爆发。但对于图灵一家，这些东西造成的唯一结果，就是图灵夫人一直留在英国。这一年5月，约翰被送到肯特郡的汤布里奇威尔斯附近的海兹赫斯特预科学校，于是只剩下艾伦陪伴在图灵夫人身边。她喜欢去教堂做礼拜，选了一个非常高的圣公会教堂，每个星期天都拉着艾伦去跟上帝交流。艾伦很讨厌教堂里的香，于是把它叫作「怪味教堂」。图灵夫人还要求艾伦学习水彩画，这是她的得意之技。她带着艾伦去看剧会，艾伦瞪着大眼睛，戴着水手帽，摆出一副古怪的表情，他喜欢看那些学艺术的女生。

1 embroidered   

adj．绣花的

参考例句：

• She embroidered flowers on the cushion covers. 她在这些靠垫套上绣了花。
• She embroidered flowers on the front of the dress. 她在连衣裙的正面绣花。

2 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

3 precocious   

adj.早熟的；较早显出的

参考例句：

• They become precocious experts in tragedy.他们成了一批思想早熟、善写悲剧的能手。
• Margaret was always a precocious child.玛格丽特一直是个早熟的孩子。

4 wilful   

adj.任性的，故意的

参考例句：

• A wilful fault has no excuse and deserves no pardon.不能宽恕故意犯下的错误。
• He later accused reporters of wilful distortion and bias.他后来指责记者有意歪曲事实并带有偏见。

5 thwarted   

阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过

参考例句：

• The guards thwarted his attempt to escape from prison. 警卫阻扰了他越狱的企图。
• Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the rain. 我们的野餐计划因雨受挫。

6 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

7 trout   

n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属)

参考例句：

• Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
• We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

10 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

11 incense   

v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气

参考例句：

• This proposal will incense conservation campaigners.这项提议会激怒环保人士。
• In summer,they usually burn some coil incense to keep away the mosquitoes.夏天他们通常点香驱蚊。

12 sketching   

n.草图

参考例句：

• They are sketching out proposals for a new road. 他们正在草拟修建新路的计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "Imagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. “飞舞驰骋的想象描绘出一幅幅玫瑰色欢乐的场景。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

13 quaint   

adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的

参考例句：

• There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
• They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。

14 screech   

n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音

参考例句：

• He heard a screech of brakes and then fell down. 他听到汽车刹车发出的尖锐的声音,然后就摔倒了。
• The screech of jet planes violated the peace of the afternoon. 喷射机的尖啸声侵犯了下午的平静。