① We tend to think of the decades immediately following World War II as a time of prosperity and growth, with soldiers returning home by the millions, going off to college on the G. I. Bill and lining up at the marriage bureaus.
② But when it came to their houses, it was a time of common sense and a belief that less could truly be more. During the Depression and the war, Americans had learned to live with less, and that restraint, in combination with the postwar confidence in the future, made small, efficient housing positively stylish.
③ Economic condition was only a stimulus for the trend toward efficient living. The phrase “less is more” was actually first popularized by a German, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who like other people associated with the Bauhaus, a school of design, emigrated to the United States before World War II and took up posts at American architecture schools. These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture, but none more so than Mies.
④ Mies’s signature phrase means that less decoration, properly organized, has more impact than a lot. Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance. Like other modern architects, he employed metal, glass and laminated wood – materials that we take for granted today but that in the 1940s symbolized the future. Mies’s sophisticated presentation masked the fact that the spaces he designed were small and efficient, rather than big and often empty.
⑤ The apartments in the elegant towers Mies built on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, for example, were smaller – two-bedroom units under 1,000 square feet – than those in their older neighbors along the city’s Gold Coast. But they were popular because of their airy glass walls, the views they afforded and the elegance of the buildings’ details and proportions, the architectural equivalent of the abstract art so popular at the time.
⑥ The trend toward “less” was not entirely foreign. In the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright started building more modest and efficient houses – usually around 1,200 square feet – than the spreading two-story ones he had designed in the 1890s and the early 20th century.
⑦ The “Case Study Houses” commissioned from talented modern architects by California Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1962 were yet another homegrown influence on the “less is more” trend. Aesthetic effect came from the landscape, new materials and forthright detailing. In his Case Study House, Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanical revolution would impact everyday life – few American families acquired helicopters, though most eventually got clothes dryers – but his belief that self-sufficiency was both desirable and inevitable was widely shared.
1.1.The postwar American housing style largely reflected the Americans’ ________.
A prosperity and growth
B efficiency and practicality
C restraint and confidence
D pride and faithfulness
解析：选C。C细节理解题。根据题干The postwa r American housing style定位至第二段②句。该句中small, efficient housing同①句中less could truly be more共同说明了战后美国住宅精简的风格特点。题干问及这种风格所映射出的美国人的特点，②句中that restraint, in combination with the postwar confidence明确指出美国人特点为克制、有信心。故选C。
2.2.Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 3 about the Bauhaus?
A It was founded by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
B Its designing concept was affected by World War II.
C Most American architects used to be associated with it.
D It had a great influence upon American architecture.
解析：选D。D推理判断题。根据题目定位至第三段，该段②句提到的与the Bauhaus相关的人，与③句中主语These designers为同指,而正是他们“exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture”因此可以推知，the Bauhaus对美国建筑行业有很大影响。故选D。
3.3.Mies held that elegance of architectural design ________.
A was related to large space
B was identified with emptiness
C was not reliant on abundant decoration
D was not associated with efficiency
解析：选C。C细节理解题。根据题干关键词 the elegance of architectural design定位到第四段,本段探讨密斯的设计理念，并在第②句明确提出：优雅并非来自于繁多，言外之意为，优雅与丰富的装饰无关。故选C。
4.4.What is true about the apartments Mies built on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive?
A They ignored details and proportions.
B They were built with materials popular at that time.
C They were more spacious than neighboring buildings.
D They shared some characteristics of abstract art.
解析：选D。D细节理解题。根据题干关键词the apartments Mies built on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive快速定位到第五段，该段介绍了芝加哥湖滨公寓相关细节信息，包括公寓设计使用的材料、大小、设计布局特点、艺术特征等等。末句提到，这些公寓的特点是当时流行的抽象艺术在建筑上的对应物。故选D。
5.5.What can we learn about the design of the “Case Study Houses”?
A Mechanical devices were widely used.
B Natural scenes were taken into consideration.
C Details were sacrificed for the overall effect.
D Eco-friendly materials were employed.
解析：选B。B细节理解题。根据题干关键词Case Study Houses定位至第七段，该段介绍了“案例研究住宅”的设计特点、审美效应来源和设计师的观念。段中②句说明：（“案例研究住宅”的）审美效应来自于自然风光、新型材料和直观明了的细节。也就是说，设计者合理利用了自然风光，产生了该建筑的审美效应，可以推知在设计时考虑到了自然风光。故选B。
