In teaching a lesson on the concept of thirds, Ms. Chu uses a divide-and-set-aside procedure. She starts with acertain number of colored disks, divides them into 3equal groups, and sets 1group aside to illustrate 1/3.She repeats the procedure by taking the disks she hadNOT set aside, dividing them into 3equal groups, andsetting 1of these groups aside. If Ms. Chu wants to beable to complete the divide-and-set-aside procedure at least 4times (without breaking any of the disks intopieces), which of the following is the minimumnumber of colored disks she can start with？

A. 12
B. 15
C. 27
D. 54
E. 81