Text 3 

We tend to think of the decades immediately following World war 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 

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 

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 n 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 

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.

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.

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 

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.

31. 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 

32. 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 n 

C. Most american architects used to be associated with it 

D. It had a great influence upon American architecture 

33. 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 

34. 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.

35. 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.