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Reefs are the work of polyps tiny colonial animals like minute sea anemones
珊瑚礁是珊瑚蟲的產(chǎn)物，一種像小海葵的有機生命群體，
yet the great barrier reef is so big it can be seen from the Moon.
可是它們生成的大堡礁甚至可以在月球上看到。
It's actually two thousand separate reefs
大堡礁由超過2000個的獨立珊瑚礁組成，
that together form a barrier stretching for over a thousand miles along Australia's northeastern coast.
綿延在澳大利亞東北部海岸，長度超過1000公里。
Despite it's vast size, this reef does not contain the greatest variety of marine life on the planet.
不管有多大，這里珊瑚礁也不可能容納全部的海洋生物。
For that one must travel north to Indonesia.
讓我們?nèi)ビ《饶嵛鱽喌谋辈靠纯础?/p>
There are individual reefs in Indonesia that contain almost as many kinds of fish as live in the whole of the Caribbean.
印度尼西亞的這些珊瑚礁所容納的各種魚類幾乎跟全加勒比海一樣多。
There are also ten times the number of coral species.
而且珊瑚物種也要多十倍。
Corals thrive in these waters with the help of microscopic plants, algae that grow within the tissues of the polyps
珊瑚在一種微生植物的幫助下生長，海藻是居住在珊瑚蟲里的一種共生藻，
and the polyps feed by snaring passing morsels with their tentacles.
珊瑚蟲利用觸手抓食經(jīng)過它身邊的食物。
At night, the algae are inactive but then, the polyps put out even more tentacles
到了晚上，共生藻停止工作，珊瑚開始釋放更多的觸手，
so coral in effect feeds around the clock.
這樣，珊瑚蟲可以晝夜不斷地有效進食。
