"Making money is a dirty game", says the Institute of Economic Affairs, summing up the attitude of British novelists towards business. The IEA, a free market think-tank, has just published a collection of essays (The Representation of Business in English Literature) by five academics chronicling the hostility of the country"s men and women of letters to the sordid business of making money. The implication is that Britain"s economic performance is retarded by an anti-industrial culture. Rather than blaming rebellious workers and incompetent managers for Britain"s economic worries. Then, we can put George Orwell and Martin Amis in the dock instead. From Dickens"s Scrooge to Amis"s John Self in his 1980s novel Money, novelists have conjured up a rogue"s gallery of mean, greedy, amoral money-men that has alienated their impressionable readers from the noble pursuit of capitalism. The argument has been well made before, most famously in 1981 by Martin Wiener. an American academic, in his English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit. Lady Thatcher was an admirer of Mr. Wiener"s, and she led a crusade to revive the "entrepreneurial culture" which the liberal elite had allegedly trampled underfoot. The present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, sounds as though he agrees with her. At a recent speech to the Confederation of British Industry, he declared that it should be the duty of every teacher in the country to "communicate the virtues of business and enterprise". Certainly, most novelists are hostile to capitalism, but this refrain risks scapegoating writers for failings for which they are not to blame. Britain"s culture is no more anti-business than that of other countries. The Romantic Movement. which started as a reaction against the industrial revolution of the 21st century, was born and flourished in Germany, but has not stopped the Germans from being Europe"s most successful entrepreneurs and industrialists. Even the Americans are guilty of blackening business"s name. SMERSH and SPECTRE went our with the cold war, James Bond now takes on international media magnates rather than Rosa Kleb. His films such as Erin Brockovich have pitched downtrodden, moral heroes against the evil of faceless corporatism. Yet none of this seems to have dented America"s lust for free enterprise. The irony is that the novel flourished as an art form only after, and as a result of the creation of the new commercial classes of Victorian England, just as the modern Hollywood film can exist only in an era of mass consumerism. Perhaps the moral is that capitalist societies consume literature and film to let off steam rather than to change the world.

Death is inevitable, but not disease. Bacteria and viruses are no mean adversaries, nor are they easily defeated. (46) If we fail to be watchful or to protect those most at risk, a public-health catastrophe is inevitable, and yet somewhere within the span of the last thirty years the idea of the common good has disappeared from our national consciousness, giving way to the misconception that we no longer need concern ourselves with the welfare of our fellow citizens. It is a dangerous conceit, and it leads us toward a future infected with unprecedented and unnecessary disease. A public-health system is only as strong as its weakest link; an epidemic enforces, in the most rigorous fashion, the American credo that all men are created equal. (47) If we allow one segment of our society to suffer and perish from preventable diseases, little stands in the way of collective doom. Yet today, 44 million people in the United States are without health insurance; those who can afford to pay for it generally receive inferior treatment, despite the fact that Americans spend $1.4 trillion annually for their health care. Prevention becomes secondary to simply keeping people alive. (48) We must not simply concern ourselves with the state of American public health; as distances collapse and human populations grow ever more mobile, so also new and deadly diseases find their way across deserts and oceans. Ironically, the medical revolutions of the twentieth century have contributed to our over-confident neglect of the public-health infrastructure. (49) We spend vast sums to lengthen the lives of terminally ill patients by a few days and refuse to make modest investments that would prevent millions of needless illnesses and death. The Americans we know pay too much for their health care, and compared with other countries we receive a very poor return on our investment. The reason are many, but they are not hard to understand: in essence, we have tended historically to view health care as a commodity like any other. But health is not a product; it is a public good. The evidence is clear even when viewed through the reductive lens of purely economic self-interest, market-based medicine is a failure. Healing people after they fall ill is vastly more expensive than preventing the illness in the first place. (50) Yet policymakers have consistently preferred the most expensive and least efficient models of health care, proving once again that the supporters of privatization are motivated not by practical economics but by an ideology that is little more than a mask concealing the most irrational self-interest.

No doll outshines Barbie"s celebrity. If all the Barbies and her family members-Skipper, Francie and the rest-sold since 1959 were placed head to toe, they would circle the Earth more than seven times. And sales are sure to boom in 2009, when the fashion doll celebrates her 50th birthday on March 9th. Barbie will star at an array of global events honouring her milestone, possibly including a glitzy affair at New York"s Fashion Week in February (most of the world"s top fashion designers, from Givenchy to Alexander McQueen, have designed haute couture for her). On her birthday, Mattel, the company that makes her, will launch a souvenir doll honouring the original Barbie in her black-and-white striped swimsuit and perfect ponytail. It will be available for purchase only that one day. Another Golden Anniversary doll targets collectors. Barbie fans have planned hundreds of events, including the National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention in Washington, DC, which is already sold out. When Ruth Handler created Barbie in 1959, a post-war culture and economy thrived but girls still played with baby dolls. These toys limited the imagination; so Handler introduced Barbie the Teen-Age Fashion Model, named after her daughter, Barbara. Jackie Kennedy soon sashayed onto the world stage and Barbie already had a wardrobe fit for a first lady. Barbie bestowed on girls the opportunity to dream beyond suburbia, even if Ken at times tagged along. Barbie entranced Europe in 1961 and now sells in 150 countries. Every second three Barbies are sold around the world. Her careers are myriad-model, astronaut, Olympic swimmer, palaeontologist and rock star, along with 100 others, including president. Like any political candidate, controversy hit Barbie in 1992 when Teen Talk Barbie said "Math class is tough" and girls" education became a national issue. She has been banned (in Saudi Arabia), tortured (by pre-teen girls, according to researchers at the University of Bath"s School of Management) and fattened (in 1997). Feminists continue to bash Barbie, claiming that her beauty and curves treat women as objects. But others see her as a pioneer trendsetter, crashing the glass ceiling long before Hillary Clinton cracked it. High-tech entertainment now attracts girls and Barbie also faces fierce competition from various copycats including the edgier, but less glare, Bratz dolls. The Bratz suffered a setback in 2008．Mattel sued MGA Entertainment, Bratz"s producer, for copyright infringement. A judge awarded Mattel $100 million in damages. Mattel has smartly ensured that Barbie products reflect current trends. Through two Barbie websites, girls can design clothes, network and play games. The pink Barbie brand is licensed for products from DVDs and MP3 players to bicycles and even 24-carat gold and crystal jewellery. Barbie collectors fuel an entire global industry on eBay and at conventions. To entice collectors, Mattel regularly releases pricey limited-edition dolls based on characters in films and popular culture. Industry analysts believe Barbie will remain a bestselling and lasting icon regardless of competition. "Barbie"s been out in the world and had fun, and she"s ready for her second career," says Rachel Weingarten, a pop culture expert. "I don"t see her adopting five children from five different countries, but I could see Barbie with a conscience, activist Barbie. " At 50 Barbie will also be a marvel of plastic surgery and eternal youth. And she still knows how to party.

Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities—as well as new and significant risks. Civil right activists have long argued that one of the principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups have difficulty establishing themselves in business is that they lack of access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded federal contracts of more than $500, 000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government, Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority enterprises. Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from $77 million in 1972 to 1.1 billion in 1977. The projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 1980"s is estimated to be over $3 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses, they often need to make substantial investment in new plants, staff, equipment and the like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small company"s efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer. A second risk is that White owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionment through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire business that neither could acquire alone. But civil right groups and minority business owners have complained to Congress about minorities being set up as "fronts" with White backing, rather than being accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures. Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming and remaining dependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer bases; when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success.Notes:civil rights activists 公民权利激进分子Hispanics 西班牙后裔美国人sizable orders 大额订单subcontract 转包合同on forms filed with the government 在政府存档备案percentage goals 指标apportionment 分配，分派public works 市政工程letup 减弱，缓和promising as it is... 这是as引导的上步状语从句，表语倒装了patronage 优惠concern n. 公司and the like 以及诸如此类的crippling fixed expenses 引起损失的固定开支the world of 大量的bid 投标to cash in on ...靠......赚钱team up 一起工作, 合作"fronts" 此处意为"摆门面"Complacency 自满

Human males living with their moms may not expect to have much luck hooking up this Valentine"s Day. 【C1】______among the northern Muriqui monkeys, males that spend the most time around their mothers seem to get a(n) 【C2】______boost when mating time rolls around. The findings, 【C3】______in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, suggest that females in some【C4】______may have evolved to play a critical role in their sons" reproductive【C5】______. Karen Strier, the paper"s lead author and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the paper "【C6】______" the so-alled grandmother hypothesis, a【C7】______in which human females evolved to live past their prime reproductive years to spend more time【C8】______offspring. The research team observed and【C9】______genetic data from a group of 67 wild monkeys living in a protected reserve in Brazil"s Atlantic Forest: infants, mothers and possible fathers. They found that six out of the thirteen【C10】______males they studied spent more time around their mothers than would be expected by chance. These same six monkeys, on【C11】______, reproduced the greatest number of 【C12】______. The investigators are still trying to 【C13】______why. It"s not until we see moms intervening and helping their sons out," Strier says. "Maybe【C14】______sitting near their moms, they get to see when females are【C15】______active, or maybe they just get more familiar with other【C16】______." The findings can【C17】______with future conservation efforts for the critically【C18】______animals. Strier says, "the【C19】______ thing we would want to do is【C20】______a male out of the group where it was born."

BPart B/B

DifferentStages,DifferentNeedsA.Studythechartcarefullyandwriteanessayof160-200words.B.Youressayshouldcoverthesetwopoints:1)thechangeofone"sneedsinhis/herdifferentstages2)yourunderstanding

DisparitybetweenOrdinaryMiddleSchoolandKeyMiddleSchoolWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

There is a confused notion in the minds of many people that the gathering of the property of the poor into the hands of the rich does no ultimate harm, since in whosever hands it may be, it must be spent at last, and thus, they think, return to the poor again. This fallacy has been again and again exposed; but granting the plea true, the same apology may, of course, be made for blackmail, or any other form of robbery. It might be (though practically it never is) as advantageous for the notion that the robber should have the spending of the money he extorts, as that the person robbed should have spent it. But this is no excuse for the theft. If I were to put a tollgate on the road where it passes my own gate, and endeavor to extract a shilling from every passenger, the public would soon do away with my gate, without listening to any pleas on my part that it was as advantageous to them, in the end, that I should spend their shillings, as that they themselves should. But if, instead of outfacing them with a tollgate, I can only persuade them to come in and buy stones, or old iron, or any other useless thing, out of my ground, I may rob them to the same extent and, moreover, be thanked as a public benefactor and promoter of commercial prosperity. And this main question for the poor of England—for the poor of all countries—is wholly omitted in every writing on the subject of wealth. Even by the laborers themselves, the operation of capital is regarded only in its effect on their immediate interests, never in the far more terrific power of its appointment of the kind and the object of labor. It matters little, ultimately, how much a laborer is paid for making anything, but it matters fearfully what the thing is which he is compelled to make. If his labor is so ordered as to produce food, fresh air, and fresh water, no matter that his wages are low, the food and the fresh air and water will be at last there, and he will at last get them. But if he is paid to destroy food and fresh air, or to produce iron bars instead of them, the food and air will finally not be there, and he will not get them, to his great and final inconvenience. So that, conclusively, in political as in household economy, the great question is not so much what money you have in your pocket, as what you will buy with it and do with it.

OnCelebrityEndorsementWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)interpretitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

You were unable to attend the examination on English Writing by Mr. White because you got sick in the morning. Write a letter to express the reason for not being able to attend it and apologize. 1. You should write about 100 words. 2. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. 3. Do not write the address.

Have you ever wondered what our future is like? Practically all people【B1】______a desire to predict their future 【B2】______. Most people seem inclined to 【B3】______ this task using causal reasoning. First we 【B4】______ recognize that nature circumstances are 【B5】______ caused or conditioned by present ones. We learn that getting an education will【B6】______how much money we earn later and that swimming beyond the reef may bring an unhappy 【B7】______ with a shark.Second, people also learn that such 【B8】______ of cause and effect are probabilistic in nature. That is, the effects occur more often when the causes occur than when the causes are【B9】______, but not always. Thus, students learn that studying hard【B10】______good grades in most instances, but not every time. Science makes these concepts of causality and probability more【B11】______and provides techniques for dealing 【B12】______then more accurately than does causal human inquiry. In looking at ordinary human inquiry, we need to【B13】______between prediction and understanding. Often, even if we don't understand why, we are willing to act【B14】______the basis of a demonstrated predictive ability. Whatever the primitive drives【B15】______motivate human beings, satisfying them depends heavily on the ability to【B16】______future circumstances. The attempt to predict is often played in a【B17】______of knowledge and understanding. If you can understand why certain regular patterns【B18】______, you can predict better than if you simply observe those patterns. Thus, human inquiry aims 【B19】______answering both "what" and "why" question, and we pursue these【B20】______by observing and figuring out.

BeaCivic-mindedTouristWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

Darwin discovered two major forces in evolution—natural selection and sexual selection and wrote three radical scientific masterpieces, "On the Origin of Species"(1859), "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex"(1871)and " The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"(1872). The "Origin", of course, is what he is hest known for. This volume, colossal in scope yet minutely detailed, laid the foundations of modern biology. 【F1】 Here, Darwin presented extensive and compelling evidence that all living beings—including humans have evolved from a common ancestor, and that natural selection is the chief force driving evolutionary change. 【F2】 Sexual selection, he argued, was an additional force, responsible for spectacular features like the tail feathers of peacocks that are useless for(or even detrimental to)survival but essential for seduction. 【F3】 Before the "Origin", similarities and differences between species were mere curiosities; questions as to why a certain plant is succulent like a cactus or deciduous like a maple could be answered only, "Because". Biology itself was nothing more than a vast exercise in catalog and description. After the "Origin", all organisms became connected, part of the same, profoundly ancient, family tree. Similarities and differences became comprehensible and explicable. In short, Darwin gave us a framework for asking questions about the natural world, and about ourselves. He was not right about everything. How could he have been? Famously, he didn"t know how genetics works; as for DNA—well, the structure of the molecule wasn"t discovered until 1953. So today"s view of evolution is much more nuanced than his.【F4】 We have incorporated genetics, and expanded and refined our understanding of natural selection, and of the other forces in evolution. But what is astonishing is how much Darwin did know, and how far he saw. His imagination told him, for example, that many female animals have a sense of beauty that they like to mate with the most beautiful males. For this he was ridiculed. But we know that he was right. Still more impressive: he was not afraid to apply his ideas to humans. He thought that natural selection had operated on us, just as it had on fruit flies and centipedes. As we delve into DNA sequences, we can see natural selection acting at the level of genes. Our genes hold evidence of our intimate associations with other beings, from cows to malaria parasites and grains.【F5】 The latest research allows us to trace the genetic changes thai differentiate us from our primate cousins, and shows that large parts of the human genome bear the stamp of evolution by means of natural selection.

Even though the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States has risen sharply since the early 1990s, the size and condition of the economic underclass has not. In fact, by several measures the number of people in America living on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder has been in a long term decline. Moreover, those immigrants who populate the underclass appear on the whole to be more socially functional than their native-born counterparts. Consider the most basic measure of the underclass: the number of people subsisting below the official poverty line as measured by the Census Bureau"s Current Population Survey(which measures all individuals residing in the United States, regardless of status). Between 1993 and 2007—that is, before the current recession took hold- the number of individuals living in poverty declined from 39 million to 37 million. The number of immigrants living in poverty increased by a million, but this was offset by a drop of 3 million in the number of native-born Americans in poverty. The period saw an increase of 1. 8 million in the number of Hispanics living in poverty, but this was dwarfed by the 3. 8 million decline among non-Hispanics, including a 1. 6 million decline among blacks. Another measure of the underclass is the number of adults without a high-school diploma. An adult or a head of household without a high-school education is almost invariably confined to lower-wage occupations with limited prospects for advancement. Sure enough, the trend in education follows that of poverty. From 1993 through 2006, the number of adults in America age 25 and older without a diploma declined from 32 million to 28 million. The number of adult Hispanic dropouts rose by 3. 9 million, much of that due to the progeny of low-skilled illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Rut among the rest of the population, the number of dropouts plunged by 8. 1 million. Educational attainment by citizenship status covers a slightly different period but confirms the trend. From 1995 to 2004, the number of adults without a high-school diploma declined by 2. 9 million. An increase of 2. 4 million in the number of immigrant dropouts was overwhelmed by a decline of 5. 3 million in native horn dropouts. As a result of these underlying trends, the underclass in our society has been shrinking as its face has become more Hispanic and foreign-born.

BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B

TheImportanceofChoosingtheRightToolWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)supportyourviewwithanexample/examples.

So why is Google suddenly so interested in robots? That's the question everyone's asking after it emerged this month that the internet giant has quietly collected a portfolio of eight advanced-robotics firms. Google is【C1】______the venture as partly a long term "moonshot" project— the name【C2】______to its more bizarre or【C3】______ideas, such as its self-driving car or broadband via high-altitude balloons. But it also says it aims to【C4】______a batch of robotics products in the【C5】______term and it has a "10-year vision" of where the company is【C6】______. Based in the US and Japan, the new acquisitions make【C7】______products, ranging from walking humanoids(human-like Robots), to assembly robots, machine-vision systems and robotic special-effects movie cameras. The【C8】______of technologies that Google has acquired doesn't point to【C9】______one type of robot being developed, says Chris Melhuish. "These technologies could【C10】______anything from a smart bed to a wheeled home-assistant robot for elderly people." But Will Jackson thinks Google will use its【C11】______in search engines to allow people to find【C12】______faster in shopping malls and airports. "You would never go over and talk to a touch screen,【C13】______if a mechanical person talks to you and makes eye【C14】______and smiles it's very hard indeed not to talk【C15】______. Google knows all about our【C16】______and market preferences already. A robot would be a good【C17】______for that information." Google's moves are【C18】______of how robotics is changing, says Scott Eckert "The robotics industry is in the early stages of a【C19】______from a primarily industrial market to a dynamic technology sector," he says. "This is an exciting industry with a【C20】______future."

The enlightenment needs rescuing, or so thinks Jonathan Israel, the pre-eminent historian of 17th-century Holland. In 2001 he published Radical Enlightenment. He now offers a second Volume with a third to come. (46) The three volumes will be the first comprehensive history of the Enlightenment for decades—and Mr. Israel"s groundbreaking interpretation looks set to establish itself as the one to beat. The period was once thought of as a glorious chapter in the history of mankind, a time when the forces of light (science, progress and tolerance) triumphed over the forces of darkness (superstition and prejudice). Today, the Enlightenment tends to be dismissed. (47) Post-modernists attack it for being biased, self-deceived and ultimately responsible for the worst in Western civilization. Post-colonialists accuse it of being Eurocentric, an apology for imperialism. Nationalist historians reject the idea of a coherent universal movement, preferring to talk about the English, French, even Icelandic Enlightenments. Mr. Israel has set himself the task oil repelling these critics and re-establishing the period as the defining episode in the liberation of man. His arguments are convincing. He contends that there were two Enlightenments, one Radical, and the other Moderate. The Radicals, inspired by Spinoza, were materialists, atheists and equalities. (48) The Moderates, who followed Locke and Newton, were conservative and more at home than the Radicals in the hierarchical and deeply religious world of 18th-century Europe. They advocated only a partial Enlightenment. In Mr. Israel"s opinion, the Radicals offered the only true Enlightenment, giving us democracy, equality, individual liberty and secular morality. The Moderates, on the other hand, have left an ambiguous and, in the end, harmful legacy. While promoting tolerance, they remained uncomfortable with the idea of universal equality. While advancing reason, they failed to divorce morality from religion and tried to rationalize faith. (49) Mr. Israel argues that for as long as historians treat the two wings of the Enlightenment as a single movement, they have misunderstood the phenomenon. Worst still, they supply today"s critics with the evidence they need to blacken the movement. This re-evaluation makes for an unfamiliar picture of the Enlightenment and its torchbearers. According to Mr. Israel, "enlightened values" were born not in England but in Holland, and he re-casts men such as Locke, Voltaire and even Hume, once thought of as champions of the party of light, as apologists for colonialism and enemies of equality. In addition, Mr. Israel would like his book to be studied beyond academia. In an ideal world everyone would be reading it. (50) His stupendous research and grasp of the sources are such that few will contest his core argument that the Enlightenment was a coherent, Europe-wide phenomenon, intellectual in origin, which represented a profound shift in the way that men thought about themselves and the world around them.

EI Nino is the term used for the period when sea surface temperatures are above normal off the South American coast along the equatorial Pacific, sometimes called the Earth"s heartbeat, and is a dramatic but mysterious climate system that periodically rages across the Pacific. EI Nino means "the little boy" or "the Christ child" in Spanish, and is so called because its warm current is felt along coastal Peru and Ecuador around Christmas. But the local warming is just part of an intricate set of changes in the ocean and atmosphere across the tropical Pacific, which covers a third of the Earth"s circumference. Its intensity is such that it affects temperatures, storm tracks and rainfall around the world. Droughts in Africa and Australia, tropical storms in the Pacific, torrential rains along the Californian coast and lush greening of Peruvian deserts have all been ascribed to the whim of EI Nino. Until recently it has been returning about every three to five years. But recently it has become more frequent—for the first time on record it has returned for a fourth consecutive year—and at the same time a giant pool of unusually warm water has settled clown in the middle of the Pacific and is showing no signs of moving. Climatologists don"t yet know why, though some are saying these aberrations may signal a worldwide change in climate. The problem is that nobody really seems sure what causes the EI Nino to start up, and what makes some stronger than others. And this makes it particularly hard to explain why it has suddenly started behaving so differently. In the absence of EI Nino and its cold counterpart, La Nina, conditions in the tropical eastern Pacific are the opposite of those in the west: the east is cool and dry, while the west is hot and wet. In the east, it"s the winds and currents that keep things cool. It works like this. Strong, steady winds, called trade winds, blowing west across the Pacific drag the surface water along with them. The varying influence of the Earth"s rotation at different latitudes, known as the Coriolis effect, causes these surface winds and water to veer towards the poles, north in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. The surface water is replaced by colder water from deeper in the ocean in a process known as upwelling. The cold surface water in turn chills the air above it. This cold dense air cannot rise high enough for water vapor to condense into clouds. The dense air creates an area of high pressure so that the atmosphere over the equatorial eastern Pacific is essentially devoid of rainfall.