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

<passage>:
unconcerned. "How can anyone be sure on a theoretical basis?" she asked, an oblique smile narrowing her eyes. "I know we can't." imitation of speech. "Yes, I've heard the legend." "It's more than a legend," said Sam Halden, biologist. The reaction was not unexpected—non-humans tended to dismiss the data as convenient speculation and nothing more. "There are at least a hundred kinds of humans, each supposedly originating in strict seclusion on as many widely scattered planets. Obviously there was no contact throughout the ages before space travel— and yet each planetary race can interbreed with a minimum of ten others ! That's more than a legend—one hell of a feel that attraction to her? "Try Emmer," he suggested tiredly. "He'll find you irresistible, and distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. "But I find it mildly "That's because you're unique," said Halden. "Outside of your own exception of mankind. Actually, the four of us here, though it's accidental, very nearly represent the biological spectrum of human development. Emmer would do—and she knew. She had no concept of love outside of the physical, to make use of her body so as to gain an advantage—what Emmer's side. Meredith, linguist, is on the other side of the middle. advantage?—for the children she intended to have. Outside of that, a corresponding span of fertility. Emmer just misses being able to breed with my kind, but there's a fair chance that I'd be fertile with The racial disparity was great and she had provoked him, but it was not completely her fault. Besides.... Besides what? She had a beautiful body that could bear superior children—and they might be his. unbroken line of evolution that could be traced back a billion years." "You're thinking of Earth," said Halden. "Humans require a certain kind Meredith and a similar though lesser chance that her fertility may extend to Kelburn." of planet. It's reasonable to assume that, if men were set down on a "But there are other worlds in which humans who were there before the Stone Age aren't related to anything else there. We have to conclude found. Instead, he evolved elsewhere and later was scattered throughout this section of the Milky Way." "And so, to account for the unique race that can interbreed across thousands of light-years, you've brought in the big ancestor," commented Taphetta dryly. "It seems an unnecessary simplification." "Can you think of a better explanation?" asked Kelburn. "Something had to distribute one species so widely and it's not the result of parallel evolution—not when a hundred human races are involved, and only the human race." "I can't think of a better explanation." Taphetta rearranged his ribbons. "Frankly, no one else is much interested in Man's theories It was easy to understand the attitude. Man was the most numerous that humans who can mate with each other were once physically close. We've got a list of all our races arranged in sequence. If planetary "To the best of our knowledge," said Kelburn. "And whereas there are humans who are relatively near and not fertile, they can always mate with those they were adjacent to two hundred thousand years ago !" "The adjacency mating principle. I've never seen it demonstrated," murmured Taphetta, flexing his ribbons. "Is that the only era that satisfies the calculations?" better ask Halden. He's the leader of the expedition." Halden flushed differences, biological and in the scale of intelligence, it wasn't as great as once was thought. Anyway, non-humans weren't trained in the fine distinctions that men made among themselves. And, higher or respect. The Ribboneer shifted his attention. "Aside from the sudden illness of world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole an equal lack of grace. He seemed to have difficulty in taking his eyes off Meredith, though, since he was a notch or so above her in the mating scale, he shouldn't have been so interested. But his planet had been inexplicably slow in developing and he wasn't completely aware of his place in the human hierarchy. Disdainfully, Meredith adjusted a skirt that, a few inches shorter, wouldn't have been a skirt at all, revealing, while doing so, just how much thought to physical modesty and, with legs like that, it was easy to see why. And beyond her, toward the far end, is Kelburn, mathematician. There's nothing mattered, and for the sake of alloying the lower with the "More than a man?" Firmon leered at Meredith and, when she failed Halden took a deep breath. "Seems all right to me." higher, she was as cruel to herself as she was to him. And yet he less complex than Man. It was a paradox that some biologically higher humans hadn't developed as much as lower races and actually weren't prepared for the multitude of life-forms they'd meet in space. Firmon's reaction was quite typical. wanted her. Halden. "Do anything you can to give it to him." Halden glowered at the man. "How long has this been going on?" "Tell me what you know about it," said Halden. Halden started. So she Perhaps it was intended to discourage Firmon, but he wished she hadn't said it. It didn't help the situation at all. Halden shrugged. "We've got to have better air. It might work." "Pests on the ship? It's filthy! My people would never tolerate it!" "Neither do we." The Ribboneer's distaste subsided. "What kind of creatures are they?" their camp." "I don't question your authority," crinkled Taphetta. "To me, all humans—late or early and male or female—look remarkably alike. If you are an archeologist, that's enough for me." He paused and flicked his speech ribbons. "Camp, did you say?" independently and those who did were scattered equally among early and late species. It's well known that individuals among my people are or early, in the depths of the bronze age or the threshold of atomic—because they were human. That was sometimes a frightening thing for non-humans, that the race stuck together. They weren't actually It was Halden who answered him. "There's the satisfaction of knowing curiosity." "Cultural discoveries," rumbled Emmer. "How did our ancestors live? When a creature is greatly reduced in size, as we are, more than physiology is changed—the pattern of life itself is altered. Things fractionally and ceaselessly. "I don't like to, but we'll have to risk using bait for your pest." consent. And there was one question Halden wanted to ask My terms don't permit you to withhold any discovery for the benefit of one race." marrying you." "Primitive," he said, alternately frozen and thawed, though he knew that, in relation to her, he was not advanced. "It's almost a curse, isn't it?" She laughed and took the curse away by "Would it be wrong?" he asked. "I'm as intelligent as you. We wouldn't have subhuman monsters." "It would be a step up—for you." Under her calm, there was tension. The conflict was not new nor confined to them. In one form or another, it governed personal relations between races that were united against non-humans, but held sharp distinctions themselves. "I haven't asked you to marry me," he said bluntly. "Because you're afraid I'd refuse." "Why did you ever have anything to do with me?" demanded Halden. "Love," she said gloomily. "Physical attraction. But I can't let it

<question>:
What most attracts Halden to Meredith?

<options>:
A Her bold and outspoken communication among 'higher-level' species
B Her shared desire to be associated with a 'higher-level' species
C Her long, slender legs and biologically superior appearance
D Her blatant disregard for rules that govern intermixing among species

<answer>:

C