In the diagram below, a diameter of each of the two smaller circles is a radius of the larger circle. If the two smaller circles have a combined area of $1$ square unit, then what is the area of the shaded region, in square units? [asy] size(4cm); filldraw(scale(2)*unitcircle,gray,black); filldraw(shift(-1,0)*unitcircle,white,black); filldraw(shift(1,0)*unitcircle,white,black); [/asy]
Let the radius of the large circle be $R$. Then, the radius of the smaller circles are $\frac R2$. The areas of the circles are directly proportional to the square of the radii, so the ratio of the area of the small circle to the large one is $\frac 14$. This means the combined area of the 2 smaller circles is half of the larger circle, and therefore the shaded region is equal to the combined area of the 2 smaller circles, which is $\fbox{1}$.