Is There a Difference Between Cause and Virtue?

The mother begins by affirming ming's swimming skills. She wants him to know that the underlying cause, the underlying cause of his achievement is so she immediately asks him to think about how he changed from fearing water to not fearing water any more. Ming does not seem to quite get his mother's idea any further. The mother simply connects ming's desire for fun to the necessity for making a great effort to learn. So she basically, at this point, short circuits and says, listen, this is about virtues. Because ming is drifting further from learning virtues.