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

<passage>:
men on ships think about, talk about, bitch about their food. It's challenge shipmen face three times a day, so central to their thoughts In the days when salt-sea sailors were charting islands and spearing his diet, a fruit known to us mariners of a more sophisticated age only as garnish for our groundside gin-and-tonic. And today we Marsmen and Scenedesmus The groundsman's diet of steak and fried potatoes. The Ship's Cook, the man who accomplishes the daily miracle of turning offal into eatables, is in many ways the most vital man aboard a spacer. He can make morale or foment a mutiny. His power is paramount. Slimeheads remember the H. M. S. Ajax fiasco, for example, in which a the of the incident, too, caused by a Ship's Cook who allowed bite he ate to a superior grade of Marsmen will recall what happened aboard my ship the The aboard the Registry minimum of six men and three officers. Ship's Surgeon was myself, Paul Vilanova. Our Captain was Willy Winkelmann, the hardest man in space and very likely the fattest. Ship's Cook was see that each man aboard gets each day no less than five pounds of essential amino acids. breed apart. We're the one race of men who can't afford the luxury of Though I'm signed aboard as Ship's Surgeon, I seldom lift a knife guardian of the medicinal whiskey and frustrator of mutual murder. Generally the man aboard who'd serve as the most popular murder-victim is the Cook. This trip, the-man-you-love-to-hate was our Captain. of his office, Winkelmann supplied the want. Captain Willy Winkelmann Pullman car, our Captain quickly established himself as a major social The Captain's particular patsy was, of course, young Bailey the Cook. Captain Willy Winkelmann who never referred to the ship's head by any other name than The Kitchen Cabinet. Bailey tried to feed us by groundside standards. He hid the taste of synthetic methionine—an essential amino acid not synthesized by Chlorella—by seasoning our algaeal repasts with pinches of oregano slabs to a delicate brown in a forlorn attempt to make mock-meat. For dessert, he served a fudge compounded from the dextrose-paste of the carbohydrate recycler. The crew thanked him. The Captain did not. you are feeding me." Captain Winkelmann blotted his chin "Not much," I said. "I suspect that the finest gift our Captain can to live with him. He's a good man at driving a ship." "His plumpness is an unwitting tribute to your cooking, Bailey," I the good work, though, and you'll keep our Captain fat." steak." imploring the Captain's ratification of his masterpiece. The big "You seem able enough to choke down Bailey's chow, Captain," I said. I "Yes, I eat it," the Captain said, taking and talking through another the ship—cannot be coaxed to work on hog-slop. You understand me, "You are a spacer and a Ship's Cook, not a suburban with the "Yes, sir," Bailey said, his face a picture of that offense the British followed him. "Captain," I said, "you're driving Bailey too hard. to improvise, to widen the horizons of his ingenuity. He will learn many discomforts. That will be all, Doctor Vilanova." "Crew morale on the ship...." I began. "That will be all, Doctor Vilanova," Captain Winkelmann repeated. the appetite of our splenetic Captain. Each such offering was condemned by that heartless man. Bailey began to try avoiding the Captain at compliments to the Chef, please," the Captain would instruct one of the crew, "and ask him to step down here a moment." And the Cook would cheerlessly appear in the dining-cubby, to have his culinary genius into Hohmann orbit. His every meal established a higher benchmark in brilliant galleymanship. We were served, for instance, an a grainy and delicious "cornbread," and had extracted from his algae a lipid butter-substitute that soaked into the hot "bread" with a "We are not amused," said Captain Winkelmann, accepting a second have learned to cook with the competence of a freshman Home Economics The crew and my fellow-officers were amused by Winkelmann's riding of Captain and their Cook served to feed them so well. Most spacers embark on an outward voyage somewhat plump, having eaten enough on their last seemed to have gained. His uniform was taut over his plump backside, Captain that he curtail his diet for reasons of health, a bit of advice Each man aboard a spacer is allowed ten kilograms of personal effects besides his uniforms, these being considered Ship's Furnishing. As his rank and responsibility merit, the Captain is allowed double this ration. He may thus bring aboard with him some forty-five pounds of him while away the hours between the planets. Bailey, I knew for a fact, had used up his weight-allowance in bringing aboard a case of spices: marjoram and mint, costmary, file powder, basil and allspice, and a dozen others. Captain Winkelmann was not a reader, and had brought no books. Cards to his nature. He never drank aboard ship. I had supposed that he'd "What disgusting form does the ship's garbage appear in today, texture steak-like. Do you understand, Sir?" meat." our food," the Captain said, his jowls settling into an expression of distaste. "It's quite all right to eat lobster, for example, but I the meal." "Try it," he urged the Captain. Captain Winkelmann sliced off a corner of his algaeal steak. The kind word from the Captain bettered the ruffles-and-flourishes of a the cap. "Ketchup," he said, splattering the red juice over Bailey's masterpiece. "The scarlet burial-shroud for the failures of Cooks." "... Sir," Bailey added. "You must realize, Belly-Robber, that a dyspeptic Captain is a threat to the welfare of his ship. Were I to continue eating your surrealistic "Watch your noun," Winkelmann cautioned the Cook. "Your adjectives are insubordinate your noun might prove mutinous." "Captain, you've gone too far," I said. Bailey, his fists knotted, was "Doctor, I must point out to you that it ill behooves the Ship's Surgeon to side with the Cook against the Captain," Winkelmann said. and the men have been more than satisfied with his work." he expects meals that would take the blue ribbon at the annual banquet restaurant of yours and forget about our fat Flying Dutchman." an apt confederate of vis medicatrix naturae , the healing power of though daring him to comment. The Captain lifted a spoonful of the now strong enough to withstand the Captain's fiercest assaults of theory of forcing a Cook to make bricks without straw. The Captain of salt, and went largely undrunk. The men in the mess compartment were vehement in their protests, blaming the Captain, in his absence, for oblivious of the taunts of his crewmates. "Then he's beat the Captain at his game," I said. "The Dutchman won't want to mess ketchup on these steaks," the crewman this is a victory for the Captain, too. He drove you to this triumph Captain may be a hard man, Bailey performance out of his Ship's Cook." Bailey stood up. "Do you like Captain Winkelmann, Doctor?" he asked. of the ship and his crew. "Do I like Captain Winkelmann?" I asked,

<question>:
The Captain is characterized in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

<options>:
A melodramatic
B sardonic
C exasperating
D acrimonious

<answer>:

D