waiting patiently is the verb phrase i believe
Literal language means exactly what it says, while figurative language uses similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification to describe something often through comparison with something different. See the examples below.
Gladwell has a few different arguments to make regarding Asian excellence at mathematics. First, the agricultural tradition of many Asian countries, which is rice farming, promotes this skill, and second, Asian languages, Chinese in particular, are better adapted to handling computation of numbers, both leading to an educational climate in which the attributes of a rice-farming tradition and an ease with numbers promote educational and subsequent success in math.
