Read the passage carefully before choosing your answer.
The orchard at High Gables had long since ceased to produce anything but bitter, hard-skinned fruit that rotted where it fell in the high, choking nettles. A low stone wall, crumbling at the corners where frost had split the mortar, separated this wilderness from the manicured lawns of the main house. Standing there under the dripping boughs of a gnarled pear tree, Eleanor felt the cold dampness seep through the thin soles of her boots. The house, seen through the skeletal branches, looked vast and indifferent, its row of shuttered windows resembling blank, unblinking eyes. For all its grandeur, it was this small, decaying corner of the estate that seemed to speak the truth of her uncle’s legacy—a monument not to wealth, but to the slow, untended rot of a family’s pride.
Which of the following best describes the function of the contrast between the decaying orchard and the manicured lawns of the main house?
- symbolize the contradiction between the family’s polished public facade and the internal decay of their legacyAnswer
- Bprovide a literal record of the boundary lines that define the physical dimensions of the estate
- Csummarize the sequence of events that led to the agricultural decline of the orchard
- Dsuggest Eleanor’s active desire to repair the crumbling stone wall and reclaim the wilderness
- Eillustrate the author's personal view that wild nature is superior to formal architectural designs