Answer:
The answer to Part A would be Ignorant, as the author goes on to state that his youthful understanding had struggled in vain. If someone is ignorant of something, yet they do not take the time to actually go research or learn about that thing, then they would be struggling in vain because they are selfish and not taking time to research what it is that the other person is saying that they do not understand.
For the answer to Part B, I would say that (Frederick) Douglass' new awareness of how owners maintain control over slaves allows him to better understand how to improve his situation. I say this because he seems to have an awakening/epiphany in the very last line: "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty".
Explanation:
I hope this helps!
It’s a shame, then, that the second part of Pauling’s advice tends to be overlooked: “Most of (your ideas) will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.” It’s certainly true that most ideas written on a Post-It note or submitted to an online system never get used, but the reason has more to do with a bias toward short-term payback in most innovation processes than informed filtration
He is trying to see what you think of the story
