雅思阅读 019 · Long-Lost Coral Reefs Rediscovered Off Africa

改编自 Scientific American（Sanidhya Sharma, 2026）。题型：段落信息匹配 + T/F/NG + 填空。难度：中等（Passage 1，约 700 词）。

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🎧 课文朗读音频（约 1 分钟）

正文 Passage

A. A forgotten reef

Some 60 years ago, scientists documented a coral reef off the coast of Benin in West Africa that they presumed was already dead. But now researchers have rediscovered the coral reef and found it to be a thriving deep-water community.

The reef was first flagged when fishing surveys conducted in the 1960s detected a possible coral formation more than 50 metres beneath the surface. Because of its depth and the limited technology available at the time, scientists concluded the reef was probably a lost cause and did not investigate further.

B. A return with better tools

That changed when a team led by Gérard Zinzindohoué of the Benin Fisheries and Oceanological Research Institute recently returned to the area with high-resolution sonar, an underwater drone and a deep-sea camera system.

"I was guided by the hope that sometimes nature can surprise us, and what you do not intend to see is what can actually happen — it surprised me as well," Zinzindohoué says.

"The first thing that gave us hope was our first deployment of the sonar. We were seeing nothing but sand and sediment, and suddenly we could see some rocky structure. Through the signature, we thought we might be in front of something that could be a coral reef barrier."

C. The twilight zone

Underwater imagery confirmed the sonar's signal: a living coral ecosystem in the ocean's "twilight zone". Such so-called mesophotic reefs thrive in dimly lit water, so they are deeper than the shallow tropical reefs most people are familiar with.

Rather than forming a single continuous barrier, the reef off Benin consists of scattered coral patches growing on rocky outcrops. "A mesophotic coral ecosystem is a type of coral habitat formed deeper than the usual shallow coral reef, in a zone where light is much more limited," Zinzindohoué says. "Unlike a typical shallow reef, it does not always form a single continuous reef structure. Instead it can appear as patchy or scattered coral communities spread across the seafloor."

D. First of its kind

The rediscovery, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, marks the first confirmed living mesophotic coral ecosystem on the Gulf of Guinea's continental shelf. It is unclear, however, if the reef has existed continuously since the 1960s detections or if it has waxed and waned over the years.

Zinzindohoué says future expeditions — including direct coral sampling and broader seafloor surveys of the west African coast — will be needed to determine the reef's full extent and to reconstruct its history.

E. A call for more research

"Right now, on the coast of West Africa, and particularly in Benin, ocean science and marine research are not well developed," he says, adding that governments are more focused on other, more urgent societal issues.

"We hope that, through this result, people will start to look at the ocean differently," Zinzindohoué says, "and that it might inspire others to do more ocean research and focus on the protection and conservation of marine ecosystems."

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题目 Questions

Questions 1-5: Which paragraph mentions the following?

1. the use of sonar and an underwater drone

2. a description of what mesophotic reefs are

3. the reef was first detected in the 1960s

4. the reef is the first of its kind on the Gulf of Guinea shelf

5. a hope that the discovery will inspire more research

Questions 6-9: T/F/NG

6. Scientists in the 1960s concluded the reef was probably dead.

7. The reef off Benin forms a single continuous barrier.

8. It is certain that the reef has existed continuously since the 1960s.

9. Ocean science is well developed in Benin.

Questions 10-13: Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• The reef was detected more than (10) ____________ beneath the surface.
• Zinzindohoué's team used high-resolution (11) ____________ and an underwater drone.
• Mesophotic reefs thrive in (12) ____________ water.
• The reef consists of scattered coral patches growing on (13) ____________.

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答案 Answers

题号	答案
1	B
2	C
3	A
4	D
5	E
6	TRUE
7	FALSE（scattered patches, not continuous）
8	FALSE（unclear）
9	FALSE（not well developed）
10	50 metres
11	sonar
12	dimly lit
13	rocky outcrops

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核心词汇

coral reef / mesophotic / twilight zone / sonar / drone / seabed / outcrop / sediment / continental shelf / conservation / ecosystem / Benin / Gulf of Guinea