what specific virtues and responsibilities are to be mastered in the degree of EA?

An initiate in the First Degree is expected to practice every commendable virtue and steadily conform to the principles of the Order 1. Among these virtues, benevolence and charity are specifically introduced through symbolic ritual 23. This charity encompasses physical relief for those in real need, but extends further to a charity of thought, sympathy, counsel, and the giving of self to comfort others 3.

The responsibilities attached to the degree involve both personal conduct and duties toward the lodge and brethren. An Entered Apprentice is expected to:

Maintain a serious deportment during regular assemblies and preserve ancient usages and customs inviolable, setting an example for others 1.

Strenuously support and maintain the laws and regulations of the Order 1.

Exercise candid judgment, friendly admonition, and just reprehension without palliating or aggravating the offences of brethren 1.

Duly honor and obey all regular signs and summonses 1.

Relieve the necessities of brethren to the utmost of his power, refrain from wronging them, appraise them of approaching danger, and view their interests as inseparable from his own 1.

Engage in intellectual self-improvement through the study of the liberal arts and sciences—particularly geometry—and participate in lodge lectures to become a useful member of society 1.

Symbolically placed in the northeast corner of the lodge, midway between darkness and light, the initiate stands at the point of beginning to lay his moral and Masonic cornerstone 3.