Read the following passage and questions, then choose the right answer from options, the answer should be one of A, B, C, D.

<passage>:
"Remember Junie O'Brien? The little golden-haired girl on Mars, a A hayseed Martian among big-planet slickers ... of course he would get into trouble. But that was nothing compared disease. So do you and I. Every day we grow older." "Uh!" exclaimed Doran. "And then the Red Ankh Society. You must have seen or heard their ads. 'What mysterious knowledge did the Old Martians possess? What was the secret wisdom of the Ancient Aliens? Now the incredibly powerful semantics of the Red Ankh (not a religious organization) is available to a select few—' That's our largest dollar-earning enterprise." He would have liked to say it was his suggestion originally, but it would have been too presumptuous. He was talking to an Earthman, who only hope. I've been wondering, maybe we could organize a Martian "I'll say you do! With a Martian!" or something. I got this Martian for you, see?" "So? Since when has all Mars had as much spending money as one big-time The gravity was not as hard to take as Peter Matheny had expected. Three generations on Mars might lengthen the legs and expand the chest a trifle, but the genes had come from Earth and the organism readjusts. What set him gasping was the air. It weighed like a ton of wool and had through the Martian atmosphere shuddered from the racket conducted by Earth's. The passport official seemed to bellow at him. "Pardon me for asking this. The United Protectorates welcome all visitors to Earth and I assure you, sir, an ordinary five-year visa Mars, would they?" head that seemed too large for his slender body. "We learned long ago that no one is interested any more in giving up even second-class citizenship on Earth to live in the Republic. But we only wanted to What the hell is the Martian Embassy here for? , thought Matheny, here I am, one solitary outlander in the greatest commercial empire the human race has ever seen, and I'm supposed to find my planet a con man! whenever he did check in. The few Martians who had been to Earth had Mars had such machines. If ever. The city roared at him. He wished gambling were legal on Earth. The Constitution of the Martian his syrtosaur wagon across Martian sands, just didn't have a prayer that was distinguished by relative austerity. leotards. "The peace that passeth all understanding be with you. The The Martian crossed the lobby. His pipe went out in the breeze from an customary form of challenge on Mars. Here, though, they simply pushed chips toward him. He missed a throw, as anyone would at home: simple sophisticated than I, do I have to talk like a leaky boiler? The helpful Earthman was not tall. He was dark and chisel-faced and sleekly pomaded, dapper in blue pajamas with a red zigzag, a sleighbell "You're from Mars, aren't you?" he asked in the friendliest tone "Nah. I am not doing one thing in particular. Besides, I have never met a Martian. I am very interested." "There aren't many of us on Earth," agreed Matheny. "Just a small embassy staff and an occasional like me." "I should think you would do a lot of traveling here. The old mother planet and so on." "We can't afford it," said Matheny. "What with gravitation and distance, such voyages are much too expensive for us to make them for made a million years ago by a, uh, extinct race ... I tell you, she appreciated me for it!" He winked and nudged. can we do? We must live, and the tourist trade is almost nonexistent." "Trouble with it is, I hear Mars is not so comfortable," said Doran. "I "I do know," said Matheny. "But we're poor—a handful of people trying to make a world of dust and sand and scrub thorn into fields and woods and seas. We can't do it without substantial help from Earth, equipment and supplies—which can only be paid for in Earth dollars—and we can't export enough to Earth to earn those dollars." "Nonsense. Welcome to Earth! Care for a thyle and vermouth?" Matheny shuddered. "Good Lord, no!" "Huh? But they make thyle right on Mars, don't they?" "Yes. And it all goes to Earth and sells at 2000 dollars a fifth. But you don't think we'd why do you call yourselves poor?" "Because we are," said Matheny. "By the time the shipping costs have been paid on a bottle, and the Earth wholesaler and jobber and sales engineer and so on, down to the retailer, have taken their percentage, Earth taxes—there's very little profit going back to the distillery on Mars. The same principle is what's strangling us on everything. Old Martian artifacts aren't really rare, for instance, but freight charges and the middlemen here put them out of the mass market." know, the title deeds to one square inch of Mars—but expressed Martian stamps are a drug on the market. What we'd like to operate is a anyway!" He fingered his mustache. "Uh, pardon me, but have you tried to, well, attract capital from Earth?" "Of course," said Matheny bitterly. "We offer the most liberal concessions in the Solar System. Any little mining company or transport firm or—or anybody—who wanted to come and actually invest a few dollars in Mars—why, we'd probably give him the President's daughter as security. No, the Minister of Ecology has a better-looking one. But who's interested? We haven't a thing that Earth hasn't got more of. We're only the descendants of a few scientists, a few political malcontents, oddballs who happen to prefer elbow room and a bill of hope to get from Mars?" "The only beer on Mars comes forty million miles, with interplanetary Martian. there are so many rackets—uh, taxes—and middlemen and agencies and et cetera. That is just the way Earth is set up these days." Matheny's finger stabbed in the general direction of Doran's pajama top. "Exactly. And who set it up that way? Earthmen. We Martians are babes in the desert. What chance do we have to earn dollars on the scale we need them, in competition with corporations which could buy and sell our whole planet before breakfast? Why, we couldn't afford Earth years, mind you." "I'm sorry to tell you this, Pete," said Doran, "but while that is not bad money, it is not what a high-powered sales scientist gets in Newer where he is now at. And I am sure he would not want to settle on Mars Mars really needs, get me?—is a confidence man." "A what?" "The best and slickest one on Earth, to operate a world-size con game for us and make us some real money." "You are from Mars. Okay? So you fought bushcats barehanded in an "Well, you see, maybe a man like that is just what Mars does need. And He shrugged and gave the Martian a sidelong glance. "Sure, you may not he became overcautious. They had instructed him on Mars to take chances if he must. "What? But—but—" Matheny hung onto himself and tried to believe that he had landed on Earth less than six hours ago. "Oh, it's simple enough," said Matheny. "It's only that we already are operating con games." "On Mars, you mean?" "Yes. There never were any Old Martians. We erected the ruins fifty years ago for the Billingsworth Expedition to find. We've been Well, why, but—" "In this case, it helps to be at the far end of an interplanetary haul," said Matheny. "Not many Terrestrial archeologists get to Mars and they depend on our people to—Well, anyhow—"

<question>:
How is Mars faring in relation to Earth?

<options>:
A Behind the times
B Earth is striving to make a treaty with Mars
C About the same socioeconomic climate as Earth
D Advanced compared to the systems of Earth

<answer>:

A