Separate habit, reluctance, and intention
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
An experienced binder's ingrained habit of closing every glue container immediately continued even when a new lid design made the action slightly different. In a workshop fable, an apprentice's indolence leaves simple cleaning tasks undone because he habitually avoids effort whenever another person might take over. The apprentice's willful refusal to clear his bench is explicit when he says that he understands the request and has decided to ignore it. The tutor uses the fable to ask whether a repeated action, reluctance, and conscious refusal necessarily describe the same thing.
The ingrained container habit proves difficult to change when the binder first encounters a dispenser that works in a different way. The fable's indolence concerns a habitual avoidance of effort, not an inability to understand the cleaning instructions. Its willful refusal also includes a clear element of intention that an accidental forgotten task would lack. Learners compare these details and suggest an ending in which the apprentice accepts responsibility, while the experienced binder practices the unfamiliar dispenser until its operation becomes more natural.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.