大堡礁是什么樣的？大堡礁的珊瑚有多少種

今天的這段對話，在討論大堡礁，
 
大堡礁是什么樣的？大堡礁的珊瑚有多少種
 
來聽今天的講解:
 
A:Vicki, hello! Long time no see. Where have you been?
 
薇琪，你好！好久不見了。你去哪兒了？
 
B:I spent the last six months in Australia. It was so great, I had a wonderful time. The best bit was snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef. The sea life there is out of this world.
 
過去半年我都待在澳大利亞。那里太好了，我玩得很開心。最有意思的就是在大堡礁潛水，那里的海洋生物是世界一流的。
 
A:The Great Barrier Reef is the only living organic collective visible from Earth's orbit.  It's one of the wonders of the natural world.
 
大堡礁是唯一能夠從地球同步軌道上看得見的生命有機體。它是自然界的一大奇觀。
 
B:And it's the world's largest coral reef ecosystem. There are loads of beautiful islands scattered around and idyllic coral cays.
 
它也是世界上最大的珊瑚礁生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。那里四周都是漂亮的島嶼和田園般的珊瑚礁沙洲。
 
A:It's pretty big. Isn't it? I think it covers more than 300, 000 square kilometers.
 
大堡礁很大．是吧？我想它的面積大概有300.000平方公里。
 
B:Yes, it's huge.  There are more than 3, 000 reefs, which vary in size, the smallest is about I hectare.  But the biggest is massive, over 10, 000 hectares.
 
是的，相當大。它由大大小小約3000多個珊瑚礁組成，最小的大約一公頃大。但最大的卻相當大，有10. 000公頃。
 
A:Wow! Unfortunately because many tourists go there, it's suffering. You know, because of the pollutants.
 
哇，真夠大的！可不幸的是，由于丟那里參觀的游客很多，大堡礁正面臨毀滅之災。你知道，這是由污染物造成的。
 
B:Unfortunately, that's true.  Its protection is the responsibility of the Marine Park Authority, they have developed something called "The Reef Plan". This is a combined effort to protect the reef
 
的確很不幸。保護大堡礁是海洋公園管理局的責任，他們制定了一個計劃叫“珊瑚礁計劃”，旨在號召大家共同努力保護大堡礁。
 
A:I believe they are doing a good job with that. How about the coral? Is it really as beautiful as they say?
 
我相信他們是在做好事。對了，珊瑚怎么樣？它們真的就像人們說的那么漂亮嗎？
 
B:Oh my god, yes!  Coral consists of individual coral polyps-tiny live creatures which join together to form colonies. Each polyp lives inside a shell of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate which is the hard shell we recognise as coral.
 
哦，天??！真的非常漂亮。珊瑚由單個的珊瑚蟲組合而成。珊瑚蟲是一種微小的生物，聚合在一起而形成一個群體。每一個珊瑚蟲都寄生在一個文石殼內。文石是一種碳酸鈣，也就是我們所說的珊瑚硬殼。
 
A:So, these polyps join together to create forests of coloured coral in interesting An. antler, brain and plate shapes.
 
也就是說，這些珊瑚蟲聚合在一起形成了五顏六色的珊瑚叢，有扇形、鹿角形、大腦形和盤子形，非常有意思。
 
B:That's right.  The ideal environment for coral is shallow warm water where there is a lot of water movement, plenty of light, where the water is salty and low in nutrients.
 
是這樣，珊瑚生活的理想環(huán)境是海水流動較多的溫暖淺灘，那里光線充足，水的鹽分高、養(yǎng)分低。
 
A:How many different kinds of coral are there?
 
大堡礁的珊瑚有多少種？
 
B:There are many different types of coral, some arc slow growing and live to be hundreds of yean old, others are faster growing. The colours of coral are created by algae. Only live coral is coloured. Dead coral is white.
 
珊瑚的種類很多，有些生長緩慢，能存活幾百年，而其它的生長較快。珊瑚的顏色是由海藻形成的。只有活著的珊瑚才是彩色的，死了的珊瑚都是白色的。
 
A:Have you got any photos?
 
你有沒有照片？
 
B: Loads! Come and have- look.
 
多的是。過來看看吧。