Fill in the blank with the correct idiom selecting from the given alternatives.
His inability to nurse his ailing mother was the ______ that stopped him from focusing on his duty.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The phrase 'an albatross around one’s neck' refers to a heavy burden of guilt, or a continuous problem that prevents a person from being successful or happy.
The idiom comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). In the poem, a sailor shoots an albatross (a bird of good omen). After things go wrong for the crew, they force the sailor to wear the dead bird around his neck as a symbol of his guilt and the curse he brought upon them.
The man feels such deep guilt or is so burdened by his inability to care for his mother that it acts as a mental and emotional weight, hindering his ability to do his work.