Fill in the blank (_) in the following sentence from the following choices.
Sentence: James could not finish his homework within the time that mom used outside. The _ is much harder.

Choice 1: James could not finish his homework within the time that mom used outside. The homework is much harder.
Choice 2: James could not finish his homework within the time that mom used outside. The time is much harder.
Which of the choices is correct? Respond with only "1" or "2" and no additional text.
1
2. The sentence is about James' struggle to finish his homework within the time given, not about the difficulty of the homework itself. Therefore,