Mies’s signature phrase means that less decoration，properly organized，has more impact that 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 buy 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.
本段首句承接上段继续介绍Mies的建筑思路：装饰少反而凸显效果。第二句+第三句对首句内容展开：他认为优雅并不来自于数量，通过利用金属，玻璃等来制造出现代简约建筑风格。第四句进行总结：Mies的成熟建筑风格可以让人感受到小而高效的好。
从考点设置来说，本段最后一句带有否定结构（rather than）这一重要的考点结构，可以利用其设置细节题的正确选项。
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.
本段整体为举例，支持上一段对Mies建筑风格的描述（现代化的设计理念）。
从考点设置来说，按照常规思路本段不适合设置考题，考官虽然打破常规设置第33题，但是因为题干中存在Chicago这种明确定位点，定位点明确的情况下处理并不困难（本段最后一句为转折结构，本身也适合设置考点）。
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.