But the dome on the Cathedral of Florence was to be so big no one knew how to hold it up while it was being built.  但是佛罗伦萨大教堂的圆顶真是太大了，当时没有人知道在建造的时候该如何把它撑起来。

It would have taken a whole forest of trees to build a big enough framework underneath.  要砍掉整片森林的树木才能在下面造一个足够大的木结构。

Some one said, “Let’s pile up a mountain of dirt and put pennies all through the dirt, then build the dome on top of this mountain.  有人说：“我们用土来堆座山吧，在土里放满硬币，然后就在这个土山上建起圆顶。

After the dome has been built people will cart away the dirt in order to get the money out of the dirt and that will leave the dome standing alone. 圆顶建好后人们为了得到土里面的钱会把土用车运走，这样就只剩下圆顶立在那里了。

But this very foolish scheme was never tried. 但是从来没有人尝试过这个愚蠢的计划。

At last two artists who were rivals said they knew a way to build the dome, but neither one would tell how he would do it.  最后有两个互相为对手的艺术家都说自己知道该怎样建造这个圆顶，但哪一个都不愿说该怎么建。

One artist was named Brunelleschi.  一个艺术家叫布鲁内莱斯基。

As Brunelleschi is such a long name, I’m going to call him Mr. B. for short.  布鲁内莱斯基这个名字实在太长了，我就简称他“布先生”。

The other artist was named Ghiberti, and I shall call him Mr. G. Mr. B. got the job and Mr. G. was made his helper.  另一个艺术家叫吉贝尔蒂，我就叫他“吉先生”。布先生接到了这个任务，而吉先生被任命为布先生的助手。

Mr. G. didn’t like to be only a helper, so he went about saying that Mr. B. did not really know how to build the dome at all, and would never finish it. 吉先生当然不乐意自己仅仅充当助手，于是他开始对人说布先生根本不知道怎么建圆顶，他永远都建不成圆顶。

Mr. B. and his men went on with the work for some time,  布先生带着自己的工人干了一段时间，直到圆顶的四周都已建好，

until the sides of the dome reached the place where the stones had to be built over the center to cover the vast space beneath.  只等着用石头把中间这个巨大的空间盖住。

This was the hard part, for the sides of the dome had to meet in the middle with nothing underneath to hold them up. 这是很难的部分，因为圆顶的四周要在中间合拢在一起而下面却没有任何东西把它托起来。

Mr. G. kept on with his talking against Mr. B. , and even made fun of him, until Mr. B. , tired of being nagged in this way, made believe he was sick and stopped work.  吉先生还在说布先生的坏话，甚至还取笑他，直到布先生厌烦了他这样不断的指责，就装病，停工了。

Time went on and Mr. B. staid home—still sick—and the dome stood unfinished. Mr. G. said,  吉先生说：“哦，布先生根本没有病"；

Oh, Mr. B. isn’t really sick; he is only making believe he is sick—as a school-boy sometimes does—because he doesn’t know how to go on. 他是在装病——就像上学的孩子有时会装病一样——因为他不知道该怎么继续下去了。

So the people of Florence went to Mr. B. ’s house and begged him to go on with the dome. 于是佛罗伦萨人到布先生家去请求他继续建造圆顶。