阅读下列材料，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

    People often ask why "Uncle Sam" is a nickname (绰号) for the United States of America. The reason is strange but simple.

    Once there was a man called Samuel Wilson. He was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, on 3 September 1766. His nickname was "Uncle Sam". When Sam Wilson was 14 years old, he joined the army and fought in some battles (战役). At the end of the war (战争) he went to live in the state of New York. He opened a meat-packing business (生意) there.

Sam Wilson worked hard and loved his country. People in the city liked him. One day in 1812, a reporter from a newspaper visited his business. The reporter looked at some boxes of meat. He saw the letters "EA-US" on the sides of the boxes.

    "What do those letters mean?" he asked one of the workers.

    "The ‘EA' stands for (代表) ‘Edward Anderson'," the workman replied. "The boxes of meat are for him."

    "What about the letters ‘US'?" the reporter asked.

    These letters really stood for "United States", but the workman wanted to have a laugh. "Oh," he said. "They stand for Sam Wilson. He has this company(公司). We call him ‘Uncle Sam'."

    The worker did not think that the reporter would believe him. But the reporter wrote a story about his visit to Sam Wilson's business. He wrote that his workers called him "Uncle Sam" and that "Uncle Sam" meant the United States.

Many people liked using the name "Uncle Sam" as a nickname for the United States and soon they were all using it. In 1961, almost 150 years later, the United States government(政府) made the nickname "Uncle Sam" official (官方的).