Numerical answer
The four sentences below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Arrange them in the correct order and key in the sequence of numbers as your answer.
1. This is because coral polyps depend on symbiotic algae living in their tissue, and warmer water causes the polyps to expel these algae, draining the reef of both colour and nutrition.
2. Coral bleaching, despite its visually dramatic name, is not itself the coral's death but a stress response to unusually warm ocean water.
3. If temperatures return to normal quickly enough, the algae can recolonise and the coral can recover, though repeated or prolonged bleaching events sharply reduce the odds of such recovery.
4. A bleached reef, stripped of its algae, can survive for a time, but it is now functioning on borrowed reserves rather than a stable energy supply.
1. This is because coral polyps depend on symbiotic algae living in their tissue, and warmer water causes the polyps to expel these algae, draining the reef of both colour and nutrition.
2. Coral bleaching, despite its visually dramatic name, is not itself the coral's death but a stress response to unusually warm ocean water.
3. If temperatures return to normal quickly enough, the algae can recolonise and the coral can recover, though repeated or prolonged bleaching events sharply reduce the odds of such recovery.
4. A bleached reef, stripped of its algae, can survive for a time, but it is now functioning on borrowed reserves rather than a stable energy supply.
Show answer and solution
Answer: 2143
Sentence 2 introduces the topic (bleaching as a stress response, not death) and must open the paragraph. Sentence 1 immediately explains the mechanism ('This is because...') referred to in sentence 2. Sentence 4 follows by describing the bleached reef's precarious state ('A bleached reef, stripped of its algae...'), continuing from sentence 1's algae expulsion. Sentence 3 closes with the conditional outcome (recovery vs. repeated bleaching), a natural conclusion. Order: 2-1-4-3.
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