Question: A young man eager to become a master swordsman journeyed to the home of the greatest teacher of swordsmanship in the kingdom. He asked the teacher, “How quickly can you teach me to be a master swordsman?” The old teacher replied, “It will take ten years.” Unsatisfied, the young man asked, “What if I am willing to work night and day, every day of the year?” the teacher replied, “In that case, it will take twenty years.”
The teacher’s main point is that an important quality of a master swordsman is
(A) humility
(B) willingness to work hard
(C) respect for one’s elders
(D) patience
(E) determination
Answer: D
Explanation:
A GMAT Critical Reasoning section consists of a passage. In GMAT critical reasoning tests the candidates are tested on their reasoning, logical and analytical thinking abilities. The candidate has to deduce the correct option by finding the logically correct argument or by eliminating the irrelevant arguments.
The question statement asks us to point out the most important quality of a master swordsman as per the teacher. Let us check the options one by one:
(A) humility - The young man asks questions to the teacher to know how he can be a swordsman fast. The teacher replies and states the time. There is no scope of humiliation here. People can assume that he gets humiliated since the teacher does not give an answer satisfactory as per his demand. However, that is not the case. The teacher knows how much time it might take.
(B) willingness to work hard - After knowing it will take 10 years, the student wanted to reduce the time. Hence, he asked what if he works day and night. He does not have the willingness to work hard but to learn within short time. Hard work takes time.
(C) respect for one’s elders - The teacher does not mention anything about respect to elders in the passage. Hence, this is incorrect.
(D) patience - After knowing it will take 10 years, the student wanted to reduce the time. Hence, he asked what if he works day and night. The teacher replies in that case it will take 20 years. Hence, we can understand that patience is the key since 10 years is a long time. If the student can keep patience and learn, he will succeed. This is the closest answer and correct one.
(E) determination - The passage indicates that determination is required since it talks about a very long time. However, there is nothing mentioned and we cannot assume what the teacher meant. Hence, we will also exclude this option.
From the above explanation, D is the correct answer.
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