Complete the following sentence.
The boy was putting in more and more hard work but the number of trees cut down did not rise because ______.
Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.
How to be successful?
A poor boy lived in a village. He was very hard-working, but was not well educated. Because of this he was not able to get any job. In such a condition, once he reached a wood-merchant. Seeing the poor condition of the boy, the wood-merchant employed him and gave him the task of cutting wood in the forest. The boy was very excited because of his new job. He went into the jungle and on the very first day, he felled eighteen trees. The merchant also braved him. On getting this appreciation, he worked harder than before but he was able to fell only fifteen trees. The merchant only said, “No problem! Keep doing hard work.”
On the third day, he put in more hard work but he could cut down only ten trees. This made the boy unhappy because everyday he did more labour but was able to cut down less trees. At last, he asked the merchant, “Sir, I do hard work everyday, but the number of cut down trees is decreasing.” The merchant asked him, “When did you sharpen your axe last?” The boy said, “Sharpening! I get no time to sharpen the axe. I am always busy cutting the trees.” The merchant said, “That is it! That is why the number of trees cut down is getting less and less.”