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It would count the number of '1' pulses in a 40-bit sequence.
它可以在40位序列中，统计"1"脉冲的个数。
This would have no application in a numerical program, but would be very useful in one where the digits coded 'yes' or 'no' answers to some Boolean question, and it was required to count the 'yes' answers—just what the Colossus had done.
这在算术程序中没有用处，但是在一些用数字表示"是"或"否"的逻辑问题中则非常有用，而这正是巨人机所做的。
Such applications might possibly have been spare-time interests of his own.
这些应用可能都是出于图灵的个人爱好，
However, it was during this period, as the international situation hardened, that he found himself consulted by GCHQ.
不过在这个期间，随着国际局势日渐清楚，国家通信总局开始向他寻求这方面的协助。
It would indeed have been remarkable had they not consulted the person who knew more about cryptology and the potential of electronic computers than did anyone else.
在密码学和电子计算机方面，如果他们不找图灵，那就是太不正常了，
And had he not described cryptanalysis as the most 'rewarding' field for the application of programming?
图灵早就说过，密码分析是"回报最大"的程序应用。
Few, however, were in a position to perceive this fact, the subject being more secret than ever.
当然，很少有人知道这一点，因为这比任何秘密都更秘密。
A hark-back to cryptology also featured in his discussions with a young American, David Sayre, in this period.
这段时间，在他与年轻的美国人大卫·塞尔的讨论中，也体现了他对密码学的回溯。
A graduate of the wartime MIT Radiation Laboratory, Sayre was now at Oxford studying molecular biology with Dorothy Hodgkin.
塞尔在战争时期，毕业于麻省理工学院放射实验室，现在在牛津大学，师从多罗西·霍奇金，学习分子生物学。
Having worked with F.C. Williams during the war, he made a visit to Manchester to see the computer, explaining that it might help in X-ray crystallography, Williams passed him on to Alan, who showed an unusual kindness and geniality, making Sayre21 'perfectly at ease with him'.
战时他曾与威廉姆斯一起工作，并去曼彻斯特参观那台计算机，他认为这有助于X射线结晶学的研究，于是威廉姆斯把他介绍给了图灵。图灵对他表现出了不同寻常的友好和亲切，塞尔感觉"和他在一起非常轻松"。
They talked for two and a half days, interrupted only when 'the telephone would ring to say that the machine was free for a few minutes in case he wanted to use it, and he would gather up sheaves of paper and ribbons of punched paper tapes ...and disappear for a bit.'
他们马不停蹄地聊了两天半，其中的间断只有当"有人打电话告诉他，如果要用机器，这几分钟可以用。然后他就会抓起一捆纸和几条打孔纸带……离开几分钟。"
David Sayre was able to guess that Alan had worked on cryptological problems during the war.
塞尔猜到了图灵在战时研究过密码学。
