I'm surprised you say that, Gertie. The better instructors where you and I fly wouldn't have opened their eyes in a second, let alone their mouths.
Yes indeed, see my more considered second post.
The point is, we wouldn't expect them to
say anything for a second or so, provided we'd already done the right thing and shoved the nose down, but we would expect them to
know what to say, which the OP was suggesting was not the case (without explaining the reasoning behind this diagnosis).