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【阅读理解】Reading: The Last Lightkeeper
Han Lian was fifty-three years old and had worked as a lightkeeper on the Dongsha headland for twenty-nine years.
One evening at dusk, a strong gale struck the coast.
Han was checking the terrace where he kept his small solar array when a huge wave capsized his dinghy, which had been moored at the concrete platform below.
He watched the boat sink, then went inside and sealed the door.
In 1998, when Han first arrived, the station had eleven staff members.
They lived in a hostel, grew vegetables, and took turns climbing the tower every four hours to refill the lamp's oil reservoir.
The government built the station in 1954 to guide fishing boats through a dangerous offshore trench.
Han's father had also been a keeper.
But in 2012 the station was automated, and the staff dropped from eleven to two.
By 2019, Han was alone.
The machinery included a backup battery, a fog sensor, and a satellite link that sent a pulse every sixty seconds.
Last spring, his daughter Mei visited from Qingdao.
She was twenty-eight, a marine ecologist studying the shrinking fish stocks of the Yellow Sea.
She told him, "The light doesn't need you. The birds don't need you. Even the fishermen have GPS now."
Han did not answer.
In 2021, the provincial authorities offered him a pension of 4,200 yuan a month to leave, but he refused.
He said he wanted to fulfil a promise made to his father on the old man's deathbed, though he could not specify what it was.
What Han did not tell Mei was that the station's decline had started long before the gale.
Since 2015, the coastline had been receding by 1.7 metres a year on average.
The marsh behind the station was polluted by runoff from a chemical facility.
Insects, then migratory birds, then fish disappeared.
Han kept a detailed log of these losses with dates and drawings.
When he showed his findings to a provincial academy delegation, they called him an eccentric and said his data was not empirical because he had no control group.
After the storm, I drove out to see him.
The road was still flooded in places, and I had to remove a fallen branch.
Han met me at the gate, looking thinner and older, his hands raw from clearing debris.
We sat on the terrace drinking stale tea while he described the night of the gale.
"The light kept flashing," he said. "The tower stood. The lamp worked. But the dock was gone, the dinghy was gone, and the backup generator had shorted out. So the light was shining on nothing."
He laughed, then stopped. "For three days, no one came. No boats. No planes. No radio. I was not aware of how much I had relied on the illusion of being needed."
By the time the coast guard arrived, Han had decided to stay for one more winter to plant a salt-tolerant grass he had been growing in tins.
The authorities had already allocated the land for a resort with thirty-two villas, a marina, and a glass navigation tower.
Han knew the resort would make more money in one season than the lighthouse had in a decade.
He also knew the grass, if it grew, might stop the next storm from washing away the last soil.
"I am not trying to save the past," he told me as the sun set. "I am trying to slow the future down."
We walked to the cliff edge.
Below, the sea was calm, a sheet of copper and grey.
Han pointed to a single cormorant gliding low. "That one stayed," he said. "The others migrated. Maybe it is injured. Maybe it is just stubborn."
Questions
1. What happened to Han Lian's dinghy during the gale?
A. It was moored at the concrete platform and sank. B. It was carried away by the coast guard. C. It was moved to the terrace with the solar array. D. It was repaired by Han before the storm.
2. When did the station become automated, reducing the staff to two?
A. In 1998. B. In 2019. C. In 2012. D. In 2021.
3. What does the word "remnant" in paragraph 4 most likely mean?
A. A person who is new to a place. B. A person who is very modern. C. A person who is very old. D. A person who is left behind.
4. Why did Han refuse the pension offered by the provincial authorities in 2021?
A. He was afraid of leaving the lighthouse. B. He wanted to fulfill a promise to his father. C. He wanted to move to Qingdao with his daughter. D. He did not like the amount of money.
5. Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?
A. A daughter's attempt to convince her father to retire. B. The benefits of modern technology for coastal communities. C. A lighthouse keeper's struggle against automation and environmental decline. D. The history of lighthouse construction in China.