input: Text: BIG ANCESTOR By F. L. WALLACE Illustrated by EMSH Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex—but then he tried to climb it! In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons. Taphetta rattled the head fronds together in a surprisingly good 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 lot more!" "It is impressive," admitted Taphetta. "But I find it mildly distasteful to consider mating with someone who does not belong to my species." "That's because you're unique," said Halden. "Outside of your own world, there's nothing like your species, except superficially, and that's true of all other creatures, intelligent or not, with the sole
  Question: The scene depicting the two pests interacting is symbolic of: 
  
   (A) The potential danger that could result if intermixing becomes prevalent and social stratification becomes impossible
   (B) The reality that 'playing dead' is the best strategy for managing other threatening species who use more overt power to retain superiority 
   (C) The lengths all species will go to in order to surpass one another or protect their own status
   (D) Taphetta's actualized fear that humans will use germ plasm to become biologically superior to his race
  Answer:
output: The lengths all species will go to in order to surpass one another or protect their own status