Free levelled English reading practice. Read for meaning first, then use the full Speed Reading tool to time yourself and track your progress.
Alan Turing made foundational contributions to theoretical computer science before electronic computers became practical machines. In 1936, he described an abstract “universal machine” capable, in principle, of carrying out any computable procedure expressed as instructions. During the Second World War, Turing worked at Bletchley Park, where British cryptanalysts attacked German encrypted communications. He contributed particularly to methods and machines used against naval Enigma. After the war he worked on early computer design and artificial intelligence, proposing what became known as the Turing Test. In 1952, however, he was prosecuted for homosexual acts, then illegal in Britain, and subjected to hormonal treatment. He died in 1954. Decades later, official apologies and a royal pardon acknowledged the injustice he suffered.
