Comprehension:
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Jo’s face was sturdy when she came into the room that evening. There was stormy displeasure in every line of it; her lips were set, her eyes unusually bright and she brought a gust of icy air with her, as if she had swept through a whirlwind of her own making.
“I’ve made a dreadful mistake and I don’t know how I ever shall forgive myself,” she said grimly, flinging down her bonnet. Meg looked up in alarm. “Jo! What is it?”
“I’ve lost the story—my only copy! I dashed out in such a hurry that the wind carried it straight from my hands. I chased it halfway down the street, but it flew faster than I could run. A boy caught one page and waved it at me as if mocking my idiocy. And then—then it vanished round the corner.”
She threw herself into a chair, shaking with anger and humiliation. “But surely,” Meg ventured softly, “another copy—?” “There isn’t another!” Jo cried. “You know how long I worked on it. Every spare moment for months. And now it’s gone through my foolish carelessness.” A silence followed—heavy, sympathetic.
“Perhaps,” Meg offered, “there is a reason things happen so. Maybe losing it will make the next one better?” Jo gave a short, almost bitter laugh. “Reason? I see none. Only that my temper ruins more than it mends. I stampede through life like a runaway horse and blame the stones for tripping me. But this time—this time—I alone am to blame.”
Meg placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, but Jo did not lift her head. She sat rigid, as though the weight of her own expectation had finally fallen upon her.
The 'weight' in “the weight of her own expectation,” means-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → internal standards whose failure feels heavy
Weight here means a heavy burden on the mind, not physical heaviness. "The weight of her own expectation" is the burden of the high standards Jo sets for herself; having failed them through her own carelessness, she sits "rigid", crushed by that failure.
Example: He carried the weight of his family's hopes into the examination hall.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: the physical exhaustion caused by creative work — Incorrect. Not mentioned: Jo is angry and humiliated, not physically tired from writing.
Option 2: Meg's severe judgment of Jo's guilt — Incorrect. Contradicted: Meg judges nobody; she comforts Jo with "a gentle hand on her shoulder".
Option 4: societal pressure that Jo feels dutybound to uphold — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage says "her own expectation", so the pressure comes from within, not from society.