Someone tell me what this sentence means? "he not only rapidly exhausted the stock of superlatives of his audience, reviewers and fans, but also became the first cowdrey lecturer to receive a standing ovation since desmond tutu in 2008".
what does stock of superlatives mean in this sentence?

by the stock of superlatives the author means the group of people who were superlative or of high post or standard in the audience.

And the sentence means that the person exhausted or astonished the minds of his audience that even the superlatives were surprised by his lecture and wasas said the first after Desmond Tutu in 2008 to get a standing ovation or the highest standard of applause to him.

explanation:

the intellectual community is a place like a university where people with high marks, or original thought or an outstanding interest in something gather. they take classes together. they discuss things. they argue sometimes, and not always in a friendly way. but if they argue, it is because they are passionate about something, and there is nothing the matter with that.

lately i've been hearing rumors that it is not the way it was when i went to school. the one thing all schools used to have was free speech. the 1st amendment rights were sacred. now i'm hearing they are not. students can be reported and disciplined for giving an off the wall opinion.

that is shameful.

intellectual ideas are meant to be discussed. they are meant to be chewed up and worked on. that is the primary responsibility of every intellectual community. if that is not the way it is, then that is not a school to go to.

social media, in my opinion, and this is just an opinion. i wouldn't take it too seriously, complicates everything to do with human communication. you can want to share things and others feel they have the right to be very critical or sarcastic or mean about what you share. lack of respect is an immeasurable intolerable condition and social media abounds with that sort of thing.

one of the things i really like about is how careful people are because they must have some idea that the mods are exactly what the word says they are. they police this board very well, and what is so remarkable about them is that they are no older than the average grade 12 student.

my hat goes off to them (which means i respect them quite a bit).