2011 考研英语阅读真题Text 3(英语二) .pdf

2011 Text 3 （英语⼆）少即是多 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. 我们⼀般认为⼆战之后的⼏⼗年是繁荣和成⻓的时期，数以百万计的⼠兵返回家园，按照军⼈安置法案 去上了⼤学，并登记结婚。 But when it came to their houses, it was a time of common sense and a belief that less could truly be more. 但，谈到房⼦的问题，当时⼈们的常识和想法是利⽤有限空间创造出更⼤空间。 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. 在⼤萧条和战争期间，美国⼈早就学会了在空间有限的房⼦中居住，美国⼈⺠的这种⾃我约束以及战后 对未来⽣活的⾃信，使得⼩⽽有效的房⼦成为流⾏趋势。 Economic condition was only a stimulus for the trend toward efficient living. 经济情况当时只是有效居住的⼀个因素。 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. “少即是多” 的说法原先实际上⾸先是因⼀位名叫 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 的德国建筑师才得以流⾏ 起来的。他和其他建筑⼤师⼀样也来⾃德国包豪斯设计学院。他们在⼆战前移⺠到美国，并在美国各建 筑学院任教就职。 These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture, but none more so than Mies. 这些设计师对美国的建筑业产⽣了巨⼤的影响，但 Mies 的影响⼒却⽆⼈能及。 Miess signature phrase means that less decoration, properly organized, has more impact than a lot. Mies 的⼝头禅的意思是简洁，紧凑会⾮常有影响⼒。 Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance. 他相信优雅不是来⾃琳琅满⽬的装饰。 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. 和其它现代建筑⼀样，他当时使⽤了⾦属，玻璃和复合⽊材料，这在今天是理所当然的，但在⼆⼗世纪 40 年代却象征着未来的发展。 Miess sophisticated presentation masked the fact that the spaces he designed were small and efficient, rather than big and often empty. Mies 的精巧展示让⼈们忘记