The Great Barrier Reef — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 6 reading comprehension comprehension exercise.
Year 6 · English · Reading Comprehension
The Great Barrier Reef — Reading Comprehension — Answers
The Great Barrier Reef
Read the report carefully. The subheadings will help you find information later.
Stretching more than 2,300 kilometres along the coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system on Earth. It is not one reef but a chain of around 2,900 separate reefs and 900 islands, covering an area larger than Victoria and Tasmania combined. It is so big that it can be seen from space.
What is coral?
Many people think coral is a plant or a rock, but it is actually an animal. A piece of coral is made up of thousands of tiny creatures called polyps. Each polyp builds a hard skeleton of limestone around itself, and over hundreds of years these skeletons pile up to form a reef. Living inside the polyps are microscopic algae. The algae use sunlight to make food, which they share with the coral. In return, the coral gives the algae a safe place to live. The algae also give coral its bright colours.
A city under the sea
The reef is home to more than 1,500 species of fish, around 400 types of coral, and six of the world's seven species of sea turtle. Dugongs graze on seagrass meadows, humpback whales visit each winter to give birth, and giant clams more than a metre wide sit wedged between the corals. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived alongside the reef for tens of thousands of years, and more than 70 Traditional Owner groups continue to care for their sea country today.
A reef under pressure
In 1981, the reef was added to the World Heritage List to protect it for future generations. But the reef faces serious threats. When ocean water becomes too warm, stressed corals push out the algae living inside them. Without the algae, the coral turns ghostly white. This is called coral bleaching. Bleached coral is not dead, and it can recover if the water cools quickly. If the heat lasts too long, however, the coral starves.
Other dangers include soil and fertiliser washing into the sea from farms, which clouds the water and blocks sunlight, and outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish, which eats coral.
Working together
Scientists, rangers, farmers and Traditional Owners are working together to give the reef the best chance of survival. Divers remove crown-of-thorns starfish by hand, farmers are changing the way they use fertiliser, and researchers are growing heat-tolerant corals in nurseries. The reef has survived for thousands of years. Whether it survives the next hundred depends on what people do now.
Part A — Locating information
Use the subheadings to help you find each answer.
Answer: More than 2,300 kilometres.
- Aa type of seaweed
- Ba tiny animal that builds coral
- Ca kind of fish
- Da limestone rock
Answer: a tiny animal that builds coral
The report says coral is 'made up of thousands of tiny creatures called polyps'.
Answer: 1981
Answer: False
The report says coral 'is actually an animal'.
Answer: Food made from sunlight, and bright colours.
- Awarm ocean water
- Bcrown-of-thorns starfish
- Cfertiliser washing into the sea
- Dhumpback whales
Answer: humpback whales
Humpback whales are described as visitors to the reef, not a threat.
Answer: Any two of: removing crown-of-thorns starfish by hand, changing fertiliser use on farms, growing heat-tolerant corals in nurseries, Traditional Owners caring for sea country.
Part B — Reading between the lines
Explain your answers using evidence from the report.
Answer: Like a city, the reef is crowded with many different living things that all depend on each other and on the structures (the coral) around them.
Answer: Bleached coral has only lost its algae, not died. If the water cools quickly the algae can return and the coral recovers; if the heat lasts too long the coral starves.
Answer: The author wants the reader to feel responsible and understand that the reef's future depends on human actions now, which is a call to act.
Answer: Cloudy water blocks sunlight, and the algae inside coral need sunlight to make food, so the coral would get less food.
Part C — Word meanings
- Avery colourful
- Btoo small to see without a microscope
- Cfound in the ocean
- Ddangerous
Answer: too small to see without a microscope
Microscopic things are so small they can only be seen with a microscope.
- Afloating freely
- Bfixed tightly in a narrow space
- Chidden underneath
- Dswimming
Answer: fixed tightly in a narrow space
Something wedged is pushed firmly into a tight gap.
Answer: Coral that can survive warmer water without bleaching.
Part D — Extended response
Model answer: Coral and algae depend on each other. The tiny algae live inside the coral polyps, where they are safe, and they use sunlight to make food which they share with the coral. They also give the coral its colour. When the sea gets too warm, the coral becomes stressed and pushes the algae out. Without the algae the coral loses its colour and turns white, which is called bleaching. The coral is still alive, but it has lost its main food supply, so if the water does not cool down soon it will starve.
Success criteria:
- Explains what algae give the coral and what the coral gives the algae
- Explains what causes bleaching
- Explains why bleaching is dangerous for coral
- Uses your own words rather than copying sentences
- Organised as a clear paragraph with correct punctuation
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.