This tells me that Ralph has a lot of weight on his back. Everyone depends on him which makes him stressed and not want to deal with anything. He doesn't want to be the leader. This moment foreshadow's that something is going to come up and Ralph needs to take the leader position.
Best of luck,

Answer:
The fear of appearing foolish to others.
Sometimes I read. But that could just be me.
Answer:
0. KNOWLEDGE
1. DEMONSTRATIVE
2. VACATIONAL
3. GLOBAL
4. PROSPECTIVE
5.ADAPTATION
6. INCREASINGLY
7. WILLINGNESS
8. UNSUSTAINABLE
Explanation:
I have been to read the text and write the correct form of the word in CAPITALS.
From the passage, we discover that clues were given at the end of each sentence. This makes it easy to form the correct word that bests completes the gap.
Each word was changed into a new word by adding few letters. This was done in order to correctly fit into the space provided.