Why might the cellular response to a peptide hormone be expected to be rapid compared to the cellular response to a steroid hormone? see section 46.2 (page 967) ?

I think this is because peptide hormones are made in advance and stored in secretory vesicles while steroid hormones are synthesized on demand on precursors, thus the response of peptide hormones will be more rapid. Additionally the receptors for peptides are on the cell membrane while those for steroid hormones are located on cytoplasm or nucleus, some have receptors on the membrane also. 

They are all in a iving organism.