Read the Paragraph Below and Answer the Questions That Follow

Read the paragraph below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the letter of the correct response.
The cross is, of course, most often associated with Christianity. However, it was also used by the Assyrians to represent their sky god, Anu, and by the Chinese to represent the earth. The symbol appears in Egyptian paintings, too; gods are often shown holding the ankh, a cross topped with a loop, which symbolized immortality. When Hernan Cortés and his Spanish troops invaded Mexico in 1519, they found the cross in native temples there, but the image represented the gods Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl. The Celtic cross, which predates Christianity, symbolized fertility.
Which of the following is a synonym used to refer to the subject of the paragraph?

A) the Chinese
B) the earth
C) the symbol