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

<passage>:
The words about whatever was the the horror of being the first! answered. He found his identity face snap from the screen. From something inside him had been forcing him to make this decision. floor. Giles made the expected the pulse in could risk. If he made it, though.... automatic. Somehow, thinking Well, he’d see those grandchildren dropped all pretense and slumped for breath and feeling his that he looked up. She handed can’t see any other explanation. of aging. I’m afraid the treatment She smiled dutifully at the better than he knew himself—which the stranger in the mirror as he after all. But now, in a few days, impossible. He resented every second of it. specter of age stood beside him, experimenting. A personal letter brain-wave pattern. It had been nothing like this his by crude mechanical and drug hypnosis for other months. Somewhere in every human brain sat gazing at the report from Jordan themselves, with the brain as only Or perhaps it lay in the cells that, and the fact that the mind that vanished at greater than the could effect physical changes in the body. Even such things as the brain taking pictures of wherever they conscious level and forced to arrived. So far, none had ever returned the first hope they’d found that the century-long trips between stars in the ponderous shuttles might be ended and he should the mechanism in the brain them return automatically after or been located. This was Scientists there had puzzled over it, reset it and sent it back. The alive. with the full transformation of message that had come on the to happen. It had been no fault of on the first projection. had been born just before Earth passed the drastic birth limitation with the eternal unconscious spoiled him. He’d even tried to avoid the compulsory emigration draft and stay on with his mother. Oddly enough, the message in the next frame showed none of that. Harry had nothing but praise for the solar system where he’d been sent. He barely mentioned being married on the way description and a plea for his showed a group picture of the family in some sort of vehicle, against the background of an alien but attractive world. He had no desire to spend ninety years cooped up with a bunch of callow young emigrants, even in one of the improved Exodus shuttles. And even if Exodus ever got the super-light a paper whose headlined feature missile and what it might mean. The discovery that men could live practically forever had put an end to most family ties sentiment he should give up his work. “Everything’s in good shape now, though it had once seemed “The doctor says everything’s It was then he realized for the such thing. A statement that lightning had never struck a The outside line buzzed musically, had some kind of attack and The intense face that looked from the screen was frowning as because of special ability—and the conversation about him only him. Then the frown vanished as an expression of shock replaced that by them, as he might be by him the man’s interest lay in the projected picture from Harry, across here for nearly a century now and “Antigravity!” His voice was unbelieving as he turned his head to face the older man. “What world is that?” forcing themselves on him. He He puzzled over it, finding no he’d never regretted it. But tonight that Earth conveyance to pass casual peace. Constant questions about above the ground. Faint how he felt, constant little looks Funny, he couldn’t picture really losing his temper here. Families the star’s designation....” can send a message on the shuttle, begging for their secret in a couple of hundred years! While a hundred other worlds make a thousand major discoveries they don’t bother reporting! Can’t the except for one about the Giles had heard it all before. Earth was becoming a backwater world no real progress had been made in two centuries tonight it held no interest. And he’d developed through of truth in it, unfortunately. richness of living now. was no escaping it. Something other discoveries eventually, without interrupting the work of making the Earth fit for our longevity. We can wait. We’ll have to.” or other. my report? We know the super-light this antigravity in less than a reduce the slice of eternity that thickness pushing back at his had happened to Sol? after all suppose something accurately enough to get a made no sense. “You mean you What? the speaker. “Of course not! It centuries, if we can ever master it. Even with Sirius expecting the carried a glowing account of We know it’s fast enough to reach Procyon in two weeks. We even know life can stand the trip. The should move out. Maybe trying family life again would give him the other was proposing, only some new interests. Amanda probably him human pilots into a ship with our He stopped, shocked by the It hadn’t been that kind of nor the last, nor the one have the big ship. All we need is one volunteer!” you really want to risk losing the rest of your life rather than waiting a couple more centuries until we know it’s safe? If you do, I’ll in a flux of emotions as the for his fear, it seemed to vanish, leaving a coldness that of him. “I’d rather know the whole answer. truth,” he said. His voice sounded chance for near eternity against such a relatively short in a low, defeated tone. “But I thought that was impossible!” when we do, the ship will be from the blank screen to stare down and he gathered himself together by an effort. “It’s a shock to me, too, Mr. Giles. But—well, They had to plan and build for it. They couldn’t risk that loses a little each time. And the effect is cumulative. It’s like an and the sight of the solid, time-enduring goes, the steeper the curve. And—well, buildings outside should Today, though, nothing seemed to help. He felt choked, imprisoned, dropping the reports into a the city beyond supposed to tell you, of course. time scale than we used to have—but it’s in centuries, not in was twisted with the dark ones eons. For everybody, not just Like an automaton, he bent you.” but he hardly noticed as he found eventually he’d die! An immortal man had suddenly found death hovering on his doubt and horrible eventual discovery. looked up at the Sun and then at the buildings built to last for thousands of years. Their eternity was no longer a part of him. from his panic to leave him Earth’s doctors could cure anything. the Centauri system. There’s a need the super-light drive if they were to span much more of the Universe than now. And he could still, even if he could never see its finish. Giles frowned. He’d expected “As all right as I’ll ever be,” he told her. “They tell me I’m just now—they preferred to see their patients in the laboratories that on, he’d be missing the old days when he’d had a mansion and a linkage to it. They’d discovered Oddly, it still tasted good to build inside himself for the future him. every conceivable device to make Yet he relished the feeling of people still in the odd, wheelless vehicle on the alien planet. FOR A long moment, he stared at the picture without thinking, as so many others had, for a small chance of some accident and nobody had any desire to spend the long future as a cripple. he’d never seen even pictures of his other grandchildren. Family the low, massive medical building. travel. Yet there seemed to be no slackening of them in Harry’s ties melted away too fast for interstellar a family, rather than a mere group. A very pleasant family in a very pleasant world. He read Harry’s note again, with its praise for the planet and its invitation. He wondered if Dr. Vincenti had received an invitation better, realizing it wouldn’t be Just how bad did he It didn’t matter, but it would explain with an old-fashioned desk and out his story. Halfway through, it. holding him on an old seemed precious to the old man ran over his body, while meters picture, studying the group again

<question>:
How is Earth perceived in this story?

<options>:
A it's run by an intelligent, motivated Council
B it is a weaker planet now because few discoveries are taking place there
C it's in the center of all of the other planets, so it's visited often
D people want to live there, as it's the richest planet

<answer>:

B