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There is, however, another great building in London that does have a dome like our Capitol. But that building is a church and it is called St. Paul’s. Indeed, it is said that the dome of our Capitol at Washington was copied from St. Paul’s, for St. Paul’s was built long before there was a Capitol at Washington, long before there was a Washington, and even long before there was a United States. They once had a great fire in London—they still call it the Great Fire, for it burned up most of the city. That was about three hundred years ago. Then a man with the name of a bird, Wren—Christopher Wren—built up much of the city that had been burned down. He built beautiful churches and other buildings; so people say it was well the old city was burned down, for it gave them the chance to make a beautiful city. St. Paul’s was one of the churches that Wren built.

During World War II thousands of buildings were destroyed by bombs dropped on London by the Germans. Many of Christopher Wren’s churches were among the buildings burned or smashed by the bombs, but he had built so many that there are still some left. The people of London called these terrible bombings the Blitz. Great numbers of people were killed. The Blitz will be remembered, like the Great Fire, for hundreds of years to come, but no one can ever say, as they said about the Great Fire, that it was a good thing for the city. The only good thing about the Blitz was the bravery shown by the people of London.

A church that Wren didn’t build, a very old one, is called Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey is not only a church; it is also a tomb for famous people. In it are buried the most famous English people who have ever lived and died-kings and queens, great writers, great poets, great musicians, great soldiers. After World War I a soldier who had died on the battlefield in France, but whose name no one knew, was buried in Westminster Abbey to honor all those who had died without name or fame for a great cause. The place is called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In Westminster Abbey is a chair in which all the kings of England sit when they are crowned kings. It is called the Coronation Chair. Underneath the seat of the Coronation Chair is a large stone. Why the stone underneath the chair seat? Well, hundreds of years ago the country North of England named Scotland was separate from England. When the kings of Scotland were crowned they used a large stone for a seat. So when England and Scotland became one country, the people took the stone of Scotland and put it under the Coronation Chair of England, so that the king could sit on both seats while he was crowned king of both countries.

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然而，在伦敦另有一栋大楼还真有和我们的国会大厦一样的圆屋顶。但那个楼是一个教堂，叫做圣保罗大教堂。实际上，据说华盛顿的国会大厦的圆屋顶是仿照圣保罗大教堂建的，因为在华盛顿有国会大厦之前很久，在有华盛顿这么个人之前很久，甚至在有美国这么个国家之前很久，圣保罗大教堂就建好了。伦敦曾经发生过一次大火——人们现在仍然称这次大火为“伦敦大火”，因为大火烧掉了大部分城市。那是大约三百年前的事了。后来有个叫雷恩的人——雷恩也是一种鸟的名字——克里斯托弗·雷恩——重建起了大部分被烧毁的城市。他建造了很多美丽的教堂和别的建筑；因此人们说旧城被烧毁是一件幸运的事，因为这给了他们一个机会建造一个美丽的城市。圣保罗大教堂是雷恩建造的教堂之一。

在第二次世界大战期间，德国人投放的炸弹摧毁了伦敦成千上万栋楼房。在烧毁和炸掉的建筑物中，就有许多是克里斯托弗·雷恩所建造的教堂，因他建造的教堂很多，所以总有一些幸存下来了。伦敦人把德军可怕的轰炸叫做“闪电式空袭”。很多人遇难。这次空袭和“伦敦大火”一样，在以后的几百年里都将被人们记住，但没有人会说空袭对城市像伦敦大火那样有好处。空袭唯一的好处就是它让伦敦人表现出大无畏的精神。

有一个教堂不是雷恩建的，一个很古老的教堂，叫做威斯敏斯特教堂。威斯敏斯特教堂不仅是个教堂；它还是很多名人的墓地。里面安葬着英国历史上最著名的人物——国王和王后、伟大的作家、伟大的诗人、伟大的音乐家、伟大的士兵。在第一次世界大战之后，人们将一名在法国战场上牺牲但无人知道其姓名的士兵安葬在威斯敏斯特大教堂，以此纪念所有那些为了伟大事业而默默无闻牺牲的无名英雄。那个地方叫做无名战士之墓。

威斯敏斯特大教堂里有一把椅子，那是所有英国国王加冕时坐的椅子。人们把它叫做加冕椅。在加冕椅座位的下面有一块大石头。为什么有块大石头在椅子座位下呢？唔，是这样的，在几百年前，英格兰北边的国家苏格兰是独立于英格兰的。当苏格兰的国王加冕时，他们用一块大石头当做座位。因此当英格兰和苏格兰变成一个国家时，人们把苏格兰的石头带到英格兰放在英格兰加冕椅的下面，这样国王被加冕为两个国家的国王时就能坐在两个座位上了。