Passage Two

E1 Nino is a distce of the world’s normal climate pattern. During El Nino s, the westerly trade winds become slower and the warmer water in the western Pacific moves towards South America. This huge increase in ocean temperatures--as much as eight degrees centigrade--and the change in atmospheric conditions bring rain to the deserts of South America and the rainforests of south-east Asia, with drought conditions throughout eastern and southern Africa. There are many knock-on effects all over the world. The home of El Nino is Peru. El Nino, "the Christ Child", was first named by Peruvian fishermen one Christmas when they noticed unusual warm currents affecting the Pacific coast of South America. Up and down the country, from desert m highlands, E1 Nino weather phenomena have brought destructive floods, costing ￡200 million in immediate and long-term damage, and undoing the work of many development projects. "The dastruction is near total," Dominic Brain, a worker for Christian Aid reported. "Few of the houses could withstand the floodwater. Today I visited Acomayo, a shantytown (贫民区) where 17,500 people once live. Now only ten percent of the houses are still standing. The bulk of the population has lost all their possessions. The town of Ica seldom sees rain. Houses for the poor are built of adobe--sun- baked mud standing side by side in long terraces. When the River Ica burst its banks in late January, 15,000 houses were swiftly flooded. Up to 5,000 houses were destroyed--a sign not only of the force of the river, which loosened huge rocks and swept them falling down born the Andean mountains, but of the vulnerability of the homes which hardly ever face rain. "They melted like chocolate," exclaimed an eye witness. "The extent of the damage was terrible!" Almost immediately health became a problem. Without proper plumbing(排水), waste matter rose to the suce of the floodwaters. People received cuts walking through the floodwater and mud Cholera--epidemic in Peru in the early nineties-- returned, with 90 reported cases in Ica province alone. The entire city seems to have drowned--first in floodwaters 1.5 meters high, and then in mud. Sadly, three people lost their lives, ed into the floodwaters, but it was a miracle that there were not more casualties(伤亡者).

Houses in Ica experienced terrible destruction during the E1 Nino because _____.