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Running suited him, for it was a self-sufficient exercise, without equipment or social connotations. It was not that he had sprinting speed, nor indeed much grace, for he was rather flat-footed, but he developed great staying power by forcing himself on. It was not important to Sherborne, where what mattered was that (to Peter Hogg's surprise) he became a 'useful forward' in the house team. But it was noticed with admiration by Knoop, and it was certainly important to Alan himself: He was not the first intellectual to impose this kind of physical training upon himself, and to derive lasting satisfaction from proving his stamina in running, walking, cycling, climbing, and enduring the elements. It was part of his 'back to nature' yearnings. But necessarily there were other elements involved; he perceived tiring himself out by running as an alternative to masturbation. It would probably be hard to overestimate the importance to his life of the conflicts surrounding his sexuality from this time onwards – both in controlling the demands of his body, and in a growing consciousness of emotional identity.
跑步很适合他，因为这是一种自给自足的运动，不需要设备，也不需要社会支持。他跑得并不是很快，也不是很好看（因为他扁平足），但他强迫自己，培养了很好的耐力。这对舍尔伯尼不重要，重要的是他在学院代表队里，成了其中的骨干，这使彼得·霍格很惊喜，并赢得了克努普的钦佩。他不是第一个强迫自己进行身体锻炼的学者，他要证明自己在跑步、走路、骑车和爬山方面的耐力，一方面是他很渴望回归自然，但还有一个更重要的原因：他通过跑步达到体力透支，以此来取代手淫。从此以后，他感到身体的性倾向引起的冲突并不那么严重了──无论是在生理上，还是在心理上。
In December it was the same arrival at Waterloo, on the way to Cambridge, but no trip to Mrs Morcom's studio. Instead his mother and John (now an articled clerk in the City) were there to meet him, and Alan said he would go and see Howard Hughes' aerial film Hell's Angels. At Cambridge he failed again to win a Trinity scholarship. But his greater confidence was not entirely misplaced, for he was elected to a scholarship at the college of his second choice, King's. He was placed eighth in order of the Major Scholars, with ￡80 per annum.*
十二月，在去剑桥的路上，他去了滑铁卢，没有去默卡夫人的画室。他母亲和约翰去那儿看他，艾伦说他要去看霍华德·霍奇的露天电影《地狱天使》。在剑桥，他没有得到三一学院的奖学金。但他并没有来错地方，因为他的第二志愿满足了，他得到了国王学院的奖学金。他在专业奖学金获得者中排名第八，每年80英镑注。
Everyone congratulated him. But he had set himself to do something, something that Christopher had been 'called away from'. For a person with a mathematical mind, an ability to deal with very abstract relations and symbols as though with tangible everyday objects, a King's scholarship was a demonstration like sight-reading a sonata or repairing a car – clever and satisfying, but no more. Many had won better scholarships, and at an earlier age. More to the point than the word 'brilliant' which now came to schoolmasters' lips was the couplet that Peter Hogg sang at the house supper:
大家都来祝贺他。但他却想要做点什么，他想做的，就是克里斯朵夫“被召唤走”的时候要做的事。对于一个能把抽象的关系和符号，看成有形的日常对象的人来说，赢得国王学院的奖学金就像弹琴或修车──看起来很聪明，令人愉快，但别无其它。很多人在年轻时都能获得很高的奖学金。相比于校长的一句轻描淡写的“很好”，彼得·霍格在学院晚宴时做出的评价更有意义，他说：
Our Mathematician comes next in our lines
我们当中的下一位数学家
With his mind deep in Einstein – and study light fines.
对爱因斯坦有很深的研究
For he had thought deeply about Einstein and had broken the rules to do so.
却不遵守爱因斯坦的规则
