Great Barrier Reef corals. Image via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.
Free levelled English reading practice. Read for meaning first, then use the full Speed Reading tool to time yourself and track your progress.
Off the coast of Queensland, Australia, lies the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system. It stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres and includes thousands of individual reefs and hundreds of islands. Although coral can look like colourful rock, reefs are built by tiny animals called coral polyps. Many corals live in partnership with microscopic algae that provide much of their energy and help give them colour. The reef supports an extraordinary variety of life, including fish, turtles, sharks, rays and marine mammals. It is also important to tourism and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have deep cultural connections with the region. However, coral reefs are vulnerable to environmental change. When ocean temperatures become unusually warm, corals can become stressed and lose the algae living in their tissues. This is called coral bleaching. Bleached coral is not necessarily dead, but repeated or severe bleaching can kill large areas of reef. Climate change, poor water quality and some other pressures threaten reefs around the world. Scientists, communities and governments are studying ways to protect reef ecosystems, but reducing global warming is critical to their long-term future.
