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

<passage>:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The sand-thing was powerful, lonely and strange. No doubt it was a god—but who wasn't? Stinson lay still in the sand where he fell, gloating over the success "Listen to that, will you?" Stinson said angrily. "Just listen! You "Earthman, wait...." "No!" Stinson shot back. "You've owned this planet for a million years. You have brooded here alone since before my people discovered fire, and in all those ages you never learned self-control. I can't subject my people to the whims of an entity who throws a planetary fit "Stinson," the Sand God said. "You said I was adolescent. You are sun. Not Sol. What should he call it, Alpha or sun of this particular solar system. He was Stinson tried to imagine it. At first there must have been a single The sun burned fiercely, although he would have said it was about four o'clock in the afternoon, if this had been Earth. Not a tree, nor a bush, nor even a wisp of dry grass was in sight. Everywhere was desert. everyone ?" A frenzied searching of the planet, the solar system, the galaxy. Then a returning to the planet. Empty.... Change. Buildings, roads, bridges weathering slowly. Such a race would have built of durable metal. Durable? Centuries, eons passed. Buildings crumbled to dust, dust blew away. Bridges eroded, fell, decomposed into basic elements. The shape of constellations changed. All trace of civilization passed except in the cavern of the heated pool. Constellations disappeared, new patterns formed in the night sky. The unutterably total void of time—FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS! And a nine-year-old child brooding over an empty world. base. Then Stinson backed away again. It was changing. Now it became a Again Stinson felt the urge to run, or to use the cylinder to project other living thing. It is a lesson my people never knew. Select any portion of this planet that suits you. Take the web-footed woman for your wife. Have children. I promise never to harm you in any way." "The webfoots?" but it was composed only of grains of sand. There was no core, no central place you could point to and say, here is the brain, or the nervous system. But then, how could a group of loosely spaced grains of supporting life. Life? Intelligence? He examined the wind devil as closely as he dared, himself somewhere else, but he said, "No!" very firmly to himself. He was here to investigate, to determine if this planet was capable of wall surrounding the pool was inscribed with intricate art work and indecipherable symbols. Life. Intelligence. The planet was inhabited. Should he give up and return to earth? Or was there room here for no meaning for Stinson. The men were dark-skinned, the women somewhat "My name is Stinson," he said, pointing to himself. "I'm from the planet Earth." They looked at each other and jabbered some more. Stinson grasped it firmly, with half a notion to break it over his disappeared. A small cloud of dust settled slowly to the floor. Disintegrated! Stinson's face drained pale, and suddenly, unaccountably, he was The funnel of sand had moved closer and while he watched it, it seemed voice crying into a monstrous emptiness, "Mother, where are you? MOTHER! "I am Stinson, of the planet Earth." planet." "Then you must know where I came from, and how." "I do not understand how. You have a body, a physical body composed of atoms. It is impossible to move a physical body from one place to another by a mere thought and a tiny instrument, yet you have done so. You deserted me out in the desert." Where is Stinson felt a mental shrug. "It is of no importance. When they arrived "The tube is not of their technology. That is, they did not make it directly. These are the undesirables, the incorrigibles, the nonconformists from the sixth planet. I permit them here because it occupies my time, to watch them evolve." "You should live so long." don't understand you. I see you as a cone of sand which keeps changing color and configuration. Is it your body? Where do you come from? Is this planet populated with your kind?" "I do not know. I alone exist. I have searched all the levels of time and matter from the very beginning. My people are gone. Sometimes it Stinson was silent, thinking of the endless years of searching through not last. When He is gone they will probably kill us." "As for the webfoots," the wind devil, or Sand God, said, "I will destroy them. You and your people will have the entire planet." "Destroy them?" Stinson asked, incredulously, "all these people? They the most basic structure of nature." The Sand God did not reply. The great bodiless, directionless voice was silent, and Stinson felt as if he had been taken from some high place and set down in a dark canyon. The cone of sand was the color of wood ashes. It pulsed erratically, like a great heart missing a beat now and Stinson donned the shimmering skirt, smiling as he did so. The others name is Stinson." never had been an athlete. How was he to decide if this planet was suitable for his people, hampered by a woman, slinking through a frozen wilderness like an depended on him. Anyway, he decided, pursuit was impossible. They left no tracks on the position." "I cannot leave her. She is helpless against them." "What form of primitive stupidity are you practicing now? Leave, or Stinson shook his head. The Sand God pulsed more violently than before. Ice melted in a wide area around it. Brown, frozen grass burned to ashes. primitive logic long before it reached your level of development." "Yes," Stinson said, "and your race no longer exists." The Sand God became a sphere of blue flame. A wave of intense heat drove them backward. "Earthman," the great voice said, "go back to your Earth. Take your inconsistencies with you. Do not come here again to infect my planet with your primitive ideas. The webfoots are not as intelligent as you, but they are sane. If you bring your people here, I shall destroy you all." burn, that and the skirts. Then, when he had burned the ship, the Sand God went to the sixth planet and burned two of the largest cities, as a warning that no more of us must come here." Well, Stinson said to himself, that does it. We are better off on Earth. We can't fight a monster like him. "I did not hear." "Yes, I know now. His voice sounds like thunder in the sky, but it is a voice that speaks only in the mind. He said I must leave this planet." sorry. It was all for me." "Don't worry. The Sand God travels without a ship, why shouldn't I?" "Now?" to green. Then he tires and lets winter come back again. He is the loneliest God in the universe." "What makes you think he's lonely?" "The Sand God isn't doing this," Stinson said. "It's only a storm." "You're leaving?" There was panic in her voice. "Only for a moment." "And you won't come back. You will go to your world." "I'll be back." He disappeared at once, giving her no chance to object again, and went to the desert of sand, where he had first arrived on the planet. He wanted to see if the storm were world-wide. Stinson had never been in a sand storm before, even on Earth. He could purposefully. Stinson prepared himself to leave. In spite of his desire Stinson ignored him. He glanced down at Sybtl, who sensed that this was a time for good-bys. He thought, perhaps I can stay here alone with her. The webfoots might find us, or the Sand God might destroy us in

<question>:
Which is the most accurate description of the planet Stinson finds himself on?

<options>:
A A haven for amphibious creatures
B A research outpost for discovering new species
C Some kind of penal colony
D An abandoned desert planet that cannot sustain life

<answer>:

C