Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The man beside her looked familiar. She felt like she knew him. Then when he opened the book on his knees, she at once knew who he was. "Now, if anyone ever has a doubt regarding factorisation , just once, read page number thirteen in your textbook. There would be no more doubt." She smiled at the memory, remembering his patient, cool face. She recalled one by one, all the memories of her middle school Math teacher. He was a widower , always looking sad. He looked tailor-made for a librarian, silent as his books, or a romantic poet, but a mathematics teacher was the last guess anyone could make about him. Oh, how they used to make fun of him, play tricks on him and laugh behind his back! He never laughed but smiled politely at everybody. Sometimes he would make silly mistakes on the blackboard, and then apologize as he erased it out. He always gave in to the girls' demands of shortening his class. His correction was always careless and merciful , and the middle school girls relied on this fact to pass through the hardest of mathematics exam papers. But she didn't remember him for this. Long shiny hair and soulful big eyes. A tall, slim frame. His daughter. They had been best friends and always hung about together. She recalled eagerly all the fun they had in middle school, wild and carefree...until his daughter went down with pneumonia . She could never forget the suddenness and the meaninglessness of it, the feeling of emptiness. After that, he looked even sadder. But, life went on. Now, after almost 25 years, sitting beside him, with a dirty city bus aisle between them, she gathered her courage and said, "Mr. Rao? I'm an old student of yours. You taught me in middle school." He looked at her for a while. "I do not even seem to remember any student." She knew he was lying. "I am sorry about your daughter." There was a pause in their conversation, and it was filled with all kinds of noises. Then he spoke, looking away. "I do not need any sympathy. In fact, all my new students think I never had any... Question: According to the passage, when the woman was in middle school, Mr. Rao was probably_. Options: A: soft-hearted B: irresponsible C: indifferent D: strict
A:
A