Great Barrier Reef
7
3.1
- proper noun
:
Gran Barrera de Coral
- Many tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef each year to experience its diverse marine life.
I went diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
- I went diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
- I just read something like the other day about how half of the Great Barrier Reef is now dead.
Examples
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I just read something like the other day about how half of the Great Barrier Reef is now dead.
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Their state hosts the Great Barrier Reef, which is among the Seven Wonders of the world.
Blog text (5) -
Several population surges have occurred on the Great Barrier Reef over the decades, beginning in the 1960s, prompting action to protect the ecosystem.
Blog text (28) -
The objectives adopted by a broad group of users explicitly include ecological sustainability through the protection of natural resources and human use and enjoyment of the Great Barrier Reef.
Academic text (2008) -
Made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland extends for 2,600 kilometers and is the world's largest structure made of living organisms.
Blog text (31) -
The Great Barrier Reef, located off the northeastern coast of Australia, is a breathtaking natural wonder.
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Conservation efforts are underway to protect the Great Barrier Reef from further environmental damage.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'great' (large), 'barrier' (an obstacle or boundary) and 'reef' (a shallow coral/rock formation), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it denotes a large reef that functions as a barrier. Although it is a specific place name (the world's largest coral system in Australia), the basic referent is directly derivable from normal noun-phrase composition, making its meaning immediately accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Great Barrier Reef got its name from early sailors who saw a long line of coral near the coast that acted like a barrier to ships; because it is very large they called it great, and reef is the word for rock or coral in the sea, so the name fits the world's largest coral reef system today.