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.
本段介绍了文章的背景：二战后大量军人回国，读书或者建立家庭，为美国带来人口繁荣。
从考点设置来说，本段不存在明确的观点内容，不适合单独设置考题（错误选项可利用内容太少）。
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.
本段首句给出转折：尽管繁荣，但是美国人信奉“少即是多”。第二句解释首句：这都是因为二战和大萧条导致的，美国人习惯上小而高效的住宅风格。
从考点设置来说，本段第二句解释了首句现象产生的原因，内容上属于重要的考点，可以设置细节题正确选项。
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 that Mies.
本段首句承接上句指出：经济因素只是原因之一。第二句+第三句进一步提
出，小而高效的流行和德国建筑师Mies 的推动有很大关系。
从考点设置来说，本段第二句为长难句，解释了出经济因素以外其他推动美国小而高效建筑风格的因素，是重要考点，可设置细节题的正确选项。