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 Snowball Effect By KATHERINE MacLEAN sociology good for?" Wilton Caswell, Ph.D., was head of my Sociology Department, and right then he was mad enough to chew nails. On the office wall behind him meant to do it. He bit off each word with great restraint: "Sociology is the study of social institutions, Mr. Halloway." I tried to make him understand my position. "Look, it's the big-money men who are supposed to be contributing to the support of this college. To them, sociology sounds like socialism—nothing can sound worse than that—and an institution is where they put Aunt Maggy when she began collecting Wheaties in a stamp album. We can't appeal to them that way. Come on now." I smiled condescendingly, knowing it would irritate him. "What are you doing that's worth anything?" He glared at me, his white hair bristling and his nostrils dilated like a war horse about to whinny. I can say one thing for them—these scientists and professors always keep themselves well under control. The words were impressive, whatever they meant, but this still didn't in what way?" from the shock of being asked to produce something solid for his position, and ran his eyes over the titles of the books that lined his of living as a basis for its general policies of—" I stopped him with both raised hands. "Please, Professor Caswell! That would hardly be a recommendation. Washington, the New Deal and the present Administration are somewhat touchy subjects to the men I have to deal with. They consider its value debatable, if you know what I me. "Fundamental research doesn't show immediate effects, Mr. Halloway, but its value is recognized." resonant like most professors, when he had to explain something he instinctively slipped into his platform lecture mannerisms, and began to deliver an essay—"have certain tendencies built into the way they happen to have been organized, which cause them to expand or contract without reference to the needs they were founded to serve." He was becoming flushed with the pleasure of explaining his subject. "All through the ages, it has been a matter of wonder and dismay to men that a simple organization—such as a church to worship in, against an outside enemy—will either grow insensately and extend its control until it is a tyranny over their whole lives, or, like other dwindle and vanish, and have to be painfully rebuilt. "The reason can be traced to little quirks in the way they were organized, a matter of positive and negative power feedbacks. Such mathematics, expressing the human factors of intermeshing authority and motives in simple formulas. "By these formulations, it is possible to determine automatically the authority on their own. Yet by the use of formula analysis—" progress of science and the respect of his colleagues, yet seething For a crumb of favorable publicity and respect in the newspapers and an annual ceremony in a silly costume, I spend the rest of the year going hat in hand, asking politely for money at everyone's door, like a well-dressed panhandler, and trying to manage the university But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to hear what he was At lunch, three days later, while we were waiting for our order, he opened a small notebook. "Ever hear of feedback effects?" "Not enough to have it clear." everything." It was a row of little symbols arranged like an algebra equation. One I hadn't expected to understand the equation, but it was almost as clear as a sentence. I was impressed and slightly intimidated by it. change and rigidity of the unwritten law of styles. "You notice," he said, "that when it becomes too heavy for the cohesion strength of snow, it breaks apart. Now in human terms—" The chops and mashed potatoes and peas arrived. He was deep in the symbology of human motives and the equations of "You add the motives," he said, "and the equation will translate them "The first is the chain letter principle," he nodded. "I've got equation. "That's it." out a few that would have made the organization too complicated, and finally worked out an idyllically simple and deadly little organization "This demonstration has got to be convincing. We'd better pick a little group that no one in his right mind would expect to grow." Picture Professor Caswell, head of the Department of Sociology, and with him the President of the University, leaning across the table toward each other, sipping coffee and talking in conspiratorial tones and repairing second hand clothing for charity with the same endless boring parliamentary formality. I pointed out to Caswell the member I thought would be the natural leader, a tall, well-built woman in a green suit, with conscious and went to work on his equation again. "Yes, several ways to bias the "Good. Point them out tactfully to the one you select. Not as if can be trusted with initiating the change. Just mention all the personal advantages an unscrupulous person could have." admiring remarks about the techniques of clothes repairing, instead of conspiring. through the first slow move to fire him. His professional pride would but.... What a mess that would make for the university. I wondered how the Civic Welfare League could dare hold its meeting at the same time as a political rally that could pull its members away. to the civic pride of all citizens of Watashaw. "With a bright and glorious future—potentially without poor and without uncared-for ill—potentially with no ugliness, no vistas which are not beautiful—the best people in the best planned town in the country—the jewel of the United States." She paused and then leaned forward intensely, striking her clenched hand on the speaker's stand with each word for emphasis. " All we need is more members. Now get out there and recruit! " She was cheering with the crowd, her eyes sparkling. "I don't know," she answered between cheers. "I only joined two days ago. Isn't it wonderful?" And good prospects Watashaw test. These proofs would fascinate any businessman with the sense to see where his bread was buttered. A businessman is constantly inert, cantankerous, or both. Caswell's formula could be a handle to grasp them with. Gratitude alone would bring money into the university in carload lots. "Perfect, Wilt, perfect you'll think it's snowing money!" He answered somewhat disinterestedly, "I've been busy working with students on their research papers and marking tests—not following the doubted that his theory could work. And he was using its success to rub my nose in the realization that I had been wrong. A man with a string of degrees after his name is just as human as anyone else. I had needled him pretty hard that first time. "I'm satisfied," I acknowledged. "I was wrong. The formulas work with negatives. I wanted it to grow . It falls apart naturally when it stops growing for more than two months. It's like the great stock boom before an economic crash. Everyone in it is prosperous as long as "No," he continued. "We'll just let it play out to the end of its tether and die of old age." "When will that be?" "It can't grow past the female population of the town. There are only must have made some provision for— "You underestimate their ingenuity," I said into the phone. "Since they wanted to expand, they didn't stick to sewing. They went from general charity to social welfare schemes to something that's pretty close to and Civic Development Corporation, and they're filing an application to change it to Civic Property Pool and Social Dividend, membership contractual, open to all. That social dividend sounds like a Technocrat climbed on the band wagon, eh?" "Leaving out practical limitations for a moment, where does the formula say it will stop?" I asked. "When you run out of people to join it. But after all, there are only Allowing for a lag of contagion from one nation to another, depending on how much their citizens intermingled, I'd give the rest of the world in his own mind. Then he laughed weakly. "Well, you asked me for a demonstration." be a fine thing—until it hits the end of its rope in twelve years or so. What happens then, I don't know.

<question>:
What traits best describe the protagonist?

<options>:
A Pragmatic and entertaining
B Smart and handsome
C Curious and pragmatic
D Socially inept and smart

<answer>:

C