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【阅读理解】Reading: A Diver's Ledger
On a calm June morning in 2023, Mira Chen, a 34-year-old marine biologist, checked her diving gear on a boat off the coast of Tanzania.
She had dived this stretch of reef 612 times, but each descent still felt like a first visit.
Her student, 22-year-old Dev, looked nervous as he adjusted his mask.
'If the water is murky, we go by touch,' Mira told him.
They descended 18 metres to a scene that had once been a vibrant cathedral of staghorn coral.
Now it was mostly rubble, with a faint smell of decay.
In 2009, live coral covered 54 percent of this 3-kilometre segment; last year, only 11 percent remained.
'This is not natural variability,' Mira said after surfacing.
'It is a collapse.' Her colleague Hassan, a quiet man who worked for the marine park, had warned her about the decline.
The phenomenon had once baffled scientists; now it had a name and a cause.
Mira's team had won a $47,000 grant in 2021 to catalogue the damage and plan restoration.
The work was not glamorous: they scrubbed algal mats off surviving coral fragments, attached them to frames, and hung them in nurseries for 14 months.
Coral grows slowly, adding only millimetres a year.
Dev once asked if they were just treating a symptom.
'Both,' Mira said. 'We minimise loss. We do not undo it.'
Then came the 2022 bleaching event: a marine heatwave with temperatures above 31°C for six weeks.
Almost every nursery coral bleached.
Mira watched four years of work turn white in nine days.
The immediate horror was the silence—no snapping shrimp, no grunts.
Dev had to record the losses; he could barely hold the clipboard.
'I feel like a cheat,' he said. 'We unveil these maps, and the coral is gone before the ink dries.'
Hassan secured $12,500 in emergency funding from a commonwealth grant, but it was meagre.
The team shifted focus to three cooler sites near a deep upwelling.
Their superior criticised them for abandoning the main reef.
'You cannot afford sentiment,' she said.
Mira disagreed but did not slander her.
Instead, the team explored assisted migration, moving heat-tolerant corals 220 kilometres south.
Some colleagues called it a distraction; others called it the only sensible route.
The debate grew explosive.
By 2024, survival at the cooler sites reached 39 percent, compared to 4 percent on the main reef.
It was a bonus, not a victory.
Mira published a cautious paper, refusing to credit their methods alone; currents, depth, and luck mattered.
Dev left for a job in a high-tech lab, tired of the physical toll.
His departure left a hole; Mira missed his questions and his stubborn honour.
She hired Ali, a 51-year-old local fisherman who knew the foreland better than any map.
He taught her to read the water by its fragrance and colour.
Today, Mira is 41, and the reef is still shrinking at 2.3 percent a year.
She no longer promises recovery; she speaks of acceptable loss.
Hassan has retired.
Ali still takes her out.
On a calm morning, she rolls into the water alone.
At 15 metres, a single table coral, the size of a dinner plate, glows faintly.
She stays until her air runs low.
Then she ascends.
The story of Mira's work shows the hard choices and small hopes in coral restoration.
Questions
1. What was the main purpose of the grant Mira's team received in 2021?
A. To catalogue the damage and devise a restoration plan. B. To purchase new diving equipment for students. C. To hire local fishermen for reef monitoring. D. To fund a marine heatwave research project.
2. What happened during the 2022 bleaching event?
A. The team successfully relocated all coral to cooler sites. B. The main reef's coral cover increased to 39 percent. C. Temperatures remained above 31°C for six weeks, causing widespread bleaching. D. Dev discovered a new heat-tolerant coral species.
3. The word 'meagre' in the passage is closest in meaning to:
A. Generous B. Insufficient C. Unexpected D. Delayed
4. What can be inferred about Mira's attitude towards the restoration work by 2024?
A. She regretted shifting focus to cooler sites. B. She believed their methods alone were responsible for the success. C. She accepted that some loss was inevitable and focused on minimising it. D. She was optimistic about a full recovery of the reef.
5. Which of the following best serves as a title for the passage?
A. The Success of Assisted Migration in Coral Restoration B. How to Become a Marine Biologist C. The Great Barrier Reef: A Global Warning D. A Diver's Ledger: Mira's Fight for a Vanishing Reef