Alan Turing: The Codebreaker Who Imagined the Computer
Every night, the enemy's secret code changed. Alan Turing helped design a machine to break it, imagined the computer and asked whether machines could think. Then his own country punished him. Learn five B2 words with the true story of Alan Turing.
Transcript
Tap a time to jump to that moment. Highlighted words have a meaning: tap them. Words in bold show today's grammar.
Every night at midnight, the enemy changed its secret code.
Breaking it by hand seemed impossible.
One shy young man believed a machine could do it.
But would it work in time?
This is the story of Alan Turing.
Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.
. A is someone who tries to understand secret messages without knowing the key.
He joined a secret team of .
. To a message means to change secret writing into words you can read.
The past is .
They thousands of enemy messages.
. Something works for everything or everyone, not just for one thing.
He imagined a machine.
. A is an official decision to forgive someone for a crime.
Royal means from the king or queen.
He was given a royal .
. means not fair, especially when a law or a powerful person treats someone badly.
The opposite is just.
He was found guilty under an law.
Now, one pattern: the third conditional.
It imagines a past that did not happen.
The code was broken, so the war was shorter.
If the code hadn't been broken, the war might have lasted longer.
Ready? Let's begin.
Alan Turing was born in London in 1912.
As a boy, he loved numbers and science experiments.
In 1926, he was ready to start at a new school.
But there was a problem.
A national strike had stopped all the trains.
Alan was only thirteen.
So he got on his bicycle and rode about a hundred kilometres, alone.
If he had stayed at home, nobody would have blamed him.
In 1936, he imagined a machine.
It could read instructions and follow them, one step at a time.
With the right instructions, it could do any calculation.
Modern computers are built on this idea.
In 1939, war began, and Turing joined a secret team of at Bletchley Park.
The German forces used a machine called Enigma.
Every night at midnight, its settings changed.
There were about 159 million million million possible settings.
No person could check them all by hand.
And every night, the work started again from zero.
So Turing designed a new machine, building on earlier work by from Poland.
It was big, noisy and full of turning drums.
They called it the Bombe.
In 1940, they switched it on.
Would it work?
It did. The Bombe found the day's settings in hours.
Soon, they thousands of enemy messages.
Some showed where enemy submarines were waiting.
If the code hadn't been broken, the war might have lasted longer.
But they needed more staff.
In 1941, Turing and three colleagues wrote directly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Churchill wrote back: action this day.
Make sure they have all they want.
When the war ended in 1945, the work stayed secret.
Some historians believe it shortened the war by about two years.
But Turing could not tell anyone what he had done.
Instead, he began to design real computers.
In 1950, he asked a question people still ask today: can machines think?
He suggested a test.
If you chat with a machine and can't tell it's a machine, is it thinking?
Today, we call it the Turing test.
In Britain at that time, relationships between men were a crime.
In 1952, Turing, who was gay, was found guilty under an law.
If he had been born a few decades later, he would not have been punished.
He died in 1954, at only forty-one.
In 2013, he was given a royal .
And in 2021, his face appeared on the British fifty-pound note, next to drawings of his machines.
Let's review. He joined a secret team of .
They thousands of enemy messages.
He imagined a machine.
He was given a royal .
He was found guilty under an law.
And remember: if the code hadn't been broken, the war might have lasted longer.
Turing's story teaches us: the world needs people who think differently.
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Step 3
Words from the story
Say the word, guess its meaning, then flip the card. Keep the ones you know, and practise the rest again.
Great work, you know every word in this story. Now try the quiz below.
codebreaker noun
someone who tries to understand secret messages without knowing the key
“He joined a secret team of codebreakers.”
decipher verb
to change secret or unclear writing into words you can read (past: deciphered)
“They deciphered thousands of enemy messages.”
universal adjective
working for or including everything or everyone, not just one thing
“He imagined a universal machine.”
pardon noun
an official decision to forgive someone for a crime
“He was given a royal pardon.”
unjust adjective
not fair, especially when a law or a powerful person treats someone badly (opposite: just)
“He was found guilty under an unjust law.”
codebreaking noun
the work of finding out what secret codes mean
“Codebreaking at Bletchley Park stayed secret for about thirty years.”
wartime noun / adjective
the time when a country is at war
“His wartime work was a secret.”
persecution noun
cruel, unfair treatment of people because of who they are or what they believe
“Many gay men faced persecution under the old laws.”
Grammar in the story
If + had + past participle, … would / might have + past participle
We use it for: the third conditional: imagining a past that did not happen, and its result
- If + had / hadn't + past participle
- would / might have + past participle
- might have is less sure than would have
From the story
- If the code hadn't been broken, the war might have lasted longer.
- If he had stayed at home, nobody would have blamed him.
Find it in the story 5 times
Your turn
If he at home, nobody would have blamed him.
If the code hadn't been broken, the war might longer.
If he had been born later, he have been punished.
Step 4
Story Challenge
9 quick rounds: choose, fill the gap, build the sentence and match the words. Answer in a row to build a streak and earn bonus points.
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Take it further
Before you watch: What do you know about computers in the 1940s? How big do you think the first ones were?
After you watch: Write three sentences about Turing’s life with the third conditional. For example: If the trains had been running, he wouldn’t have cycled to school.
Think about it: Turing was given a pardon almost sixty years after he died. Is a pardon enough? What else can a country do when its old laws were unjust?
