Read the following passage carefully:
Julian stood before the abandoned conservatory at the edge of the estate, where the glass panes, long since cracked and frosted with grime, rattled in the autumn wind. Inside, the air was heavy with the scent of damp earth and rotting leaves, a suffocating shroud that seemed to choke the very memory of the vibrant orchids his mother had once tended. Yet, in the farthest corner, clinging to a rusted iron support, a single white clematis had found a pocket of pale sunlight. Its petals were translucent, almost ghostly, yet it held fast against the drafts that swept through the broken roof. Julian reached out, his fingers hovering over the delicate stem, but he did not touch it. To pluck it would be to claim a beauty that belonged only to the ruin, a fragile testament to survival in a place that had surrendered to decay. He drew his coat tighter around his shoulders, feeling the chill of the dying day seep into his bones, and turned back toward the dark, silent house.
In the passage, the single white clematis blooming in the ruined conservatory primarily symbolizes which of the following?
- Athe botanical triumph of wild species over cultivated domestic plants
- Bthe author's condemnation of the family's negligence of their ancestral lands
- the persistent endurance of beauty and life in an environment dominated by decayAnswer
- DJulian’s physical reluctance to disturb the natural state of the garden
- Ea conventional sign of pure grief that signifies Julian’s mourning for his mother