Complete the following review with the phrases form the box
fought against time Second World War
worked as a codebreaker and a statistician unpleasant events follows
builds a machine helping to anticipate attacks
complex portrait of the scientist chronological order of events
which was illegal in Britain at the time
Alan Turing was a British mathematician and cryptologist. During the Second World War
He lead a team made of scientists, linguists, and chess champions who builds a machine
to decode secret messages by the German army. Endorsed by Winston Churchill, Turing fought
against time called Christopher. Thanks to Turing’s machine, the allied forces succeed to decode
the messages that are encrypted by the Nazi’s Enigma machine. This achievement helps to
shorten the war by helping to anticipate attacks and save millions of lives.
The film does not follow chronological order of events. By jumping in time in different moments
of Truing’s life, the director Morten Tyldum manages to show a complex portrait of the
scientist. Turing is shown in 1927 when he was at a boarding school; form 1939 to the end of
the was when he worked as a codebreaker and a statistician; and then in 1952 when he was
arrested for gross indecency. He was charged of inappropriate sexual behaviour because of his
homosexuality which was illegal in Britain at the time. A sequence of unpleasant events
follows. He is finally forced to undergo chemical castration which leads to his suicide on 7 June
1954.
Complete the following lines from the movie
Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no
one can imagine
When people talk to each other , they never say what they
mean. They say something else and you’re expected to just know what they mean
You’re not God, Alan. You don’t get to decide who lives and who dies
Now, if you wish you could have been normal, I can promise you, I do not. The world is an
infinitely better place precisely because you weren’t
Choose the correct word.
Joan Clarke completes the crossword in less time than Alan
Joan appears nervous in a man’s world
Joan’s parents are worried about her working at Bletchley Park
Hugh tries to break Alan’s machine
Match the sentence halves
1. Denniston believes code to tell Alan his real feelings (3)
2. Joan advises why his machine isn’t working (4)
3. Christopher uses the team one more month (6)
4. Alan doesn’t understand that Alan is a spy (1)
5. Hugh rescues Alan to get his team to like him (2)
6. Denniston gives Alan from Denniston (5)
Complete the following sentences with the gerund form of the verbs in the box
Bomb get hit learn pass phone tell
Alan stops Hugh from phoning Denniston to tell him about
the U-boats attack
Joan stops Hugh from hitting Alan a second time
The team can’t stop the U-boats from bombing the Carlisle
Menzies will stop the Germans from learning that the British
have broken the Enigma code
John tries to stop Alan from telling anyone that he is a spy
Menzies doesn’t want to stop Cairncross from passing
information to the Russians
Alan wants to stop Joan from getting hurt.
Read the following newspaper article. What does it say about the differences between the
film and the real events?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/20/the-imitation-game-invents-new-slander-to-
insult-alan-turing-reel-history
The differences between the film and the real events are:
When Turing was children, He is summoned into the headmaster’s office, and is told coldly that
the object of his affection has died of bovine tuberculosis. The film is right that this awful event
had a formative impact on Turing’s life. In reality, though, Turing had been warned before his
friend died that he should prepare for the worst. The housemaster’s speech (to all the boys, not
just him) announcing Morcom’s death was kind and comforting.
The other difference is in the Turing‘s romance with Joan, in the film gives him a
quasi-romantic foil in cryptanalyst Joan Clarke, dubiously fictionalised as the key
emotional figure of Turing’s adult life. The real Turing was engaged to her for a
while, but he told her upfront that he had homosexual tendencies. According to
him, she was “unfazed” by this. But in the movie, He said it to her in the end film.
In your opinion:
Was it right that Turing was arrested for his homosexuality? Why? Why not?
It was not right for Turing to be arrested for his homosexuality, as no one can be tried for his
sexual preferences.
You can watch the movie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_xE807vc6g
