input: Text: THE MAN OUTSIDE By EVELYN E. SMITH Illustrated by DILLON No one, least of all Martin, could dispute that a man's life should be guarded by his kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet? Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. Mothers had a way of disappearing around those parts and the kids were often better off without them. Martin was no exception. He'd never had it this good while he was living with his old lady. As for his father, Martin had never had one. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the tides of soldiers—enemies and allies, both—that had engulfed the country in successive waves and bought or taken the women. So there was no trouble that way. Sometimes he wondered who Ninian really was. Obviously that story about her coming from the future was just a gag. Besides, if she really was his great-great-grand-daughter, as she said, why would she tell him to call her " Aunt Ninian "? Maybe he was only
  Question: Read the following passage:
  
  "Ninian bought one of those smallish, almost identical houses that mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites."
  
  What, in that passage, is symbolic?
  
   (A) "houses that mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites," is symbolic of the way things like the atom bomb, that leaves a mushroom cloud in its wake, are thought to have been unleashed upon the world to preserve or "create" things that will be "desirable" for society. 
   (B) "intensive bombing" is symbolic of what the descendants imagine they are doing to Martin to make sure they impart enough of their future society on him to make him agreeable to carrying on with their way of life.
   (C) The word "bought" is symbolic of the wealth Martin is to bring to future worlds.
   (D) "Smallish, almost identical houses," is symbolic of the way that Ninian blends in with current society.
  Answer:
output: "houses that mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites," is symbolic of the way things like the atom bomb, that leaves a mushroom cloud in its wake, are thought to have been unleashed upon the world to preserve or "create" things that will be "desirable" for society.