<prompt> Please answer with one of the option in the bracket. Write reasoning in between . Write answer in between .Q:A 69-year-old man comes to the physician with a 2-year history of progressive hearing loss. His hearing is worse in crowded rooms, and he has noticed that he has more difficulty understanding women than men. He has no history of serious illness and does not take any medications. A Rinne test shows air conduction is greater than bone conduction bilaterally. This condition is most likely associated with damage closest to which of the following structures?? A: External acoustic meatus, B: Tympanic membrane, C: Basal turn of the cochlea, D: Round window, E: Base of the stapes,  <response>: This is a question about progressive sensorineural hearing loss in an older adult. The key finding in the stem is that the patient has worse hearing in noisy environments and more difficulty understanding womens voices, which points to high frequency hearing loss. The Rinne test showing air conduction greater than bone conduction indicates sensorineural inner ear pathology rather than conductive pathology. The choices list different structures of the ear. Sensorineural hearing loss localized to high frequencies is most consistent with damage to the basal turn of the cochlea, where high frequency sounds are transduced. Therefore, the correct answer is C.C: Basal turn of the cochlea 