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Edward Hoagland, On Stuttering

Edward Hoagland, On Stuttering

Read On Stuttering and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. What is “schadenfreude”?

a Freudian slip

embarrassment

happiness felt at someone else’s misfortune

the German word for “stuttering”

2. How did the author convince the draft-board psychiatrist that he was suitable for the army?

He took a sedative before going to the interview.

He meditated an hour before the interview.

He told him that temporary nervousness was causing his stuttering.

Miraculously, he just didn’t stutter during the interview.

3. Which of the following fictional characters stuttered?

Jay Gatsby

Dr. Frankenstein

Beowulf

Billy Budd

4. Why do many stutterers develop a snappish temper?

For some unknown reason, a contentious personality is actually part of the stuttering syndrome.

A contentious personality keeps most strangers at bay.

Most people are very insensitive to the stutterer’s plight, and the stutterer senses it.

Being ready to lose one’s temper initiates an adrenaline rush, which helps curb stuttering.

5. What happened to the author at age 60 that temporarily relieved him of his stuttering?

He won the Pulitzer Prize and had to give a speech before his peers.

His youngest daughter was born, and he wanted to talk clearly to her lest she become a stutterer, too.

He learned to use “slow speech.”

He went semi-blind and that emergency trumped his lesser disability.