单选题
You and your parents can stop worrying-Pasteur,
Edison, Darwin and lots more were far from being geniuses in their
teens. History books {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}}
{{/U}}mention it, but the truth is that many of our greatest figures were
{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}"beatniks" when they were teenagers.
They were given to daydreaming, indecision, plain dullness, and they showed no
{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}of being doctor, lawyer or Indian
chief. So, young men and women, if you suffer from the same
{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}, don't despair. The world was built
by men and women whose parents worried that they would "never {{U}}
{{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}} to a hill of beans." You don't hear too
much about their early failure because parents prefer to cite more {{U}}
{{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}examples. If you take piano
lessons and your attitude towards practicing is {{U}} {{U}} 7
{{/U}} {{/U}}by laziness, your parents might {{U}} {{U}} 8
{{/U}} {{/U}}complain and flaunt before you the famous picture of little
Mozart in his ruffled nightshirt, playing the piano at midnight in the attic.
{{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}the point is, your parents would not
show you a picture of a certain party who never showed a {{U}} {{U}}
10 {{/U}} {{/U}}of interest in music during his {{U}} {{U}}
11 {{/U}} {{/U}}years. In fact he never showed {{U}} {{U}}
12 {{/U}} {{/U}}in any direction whatever. Finally put to studying law,
he {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}passed his final exams. It was
not until he was 22 that he suddenly became fired {{U}} {{U}} 14
{{/U}} {{/U}}a great passion for music, and his name was Peter Ilyitch
Tschaikowsky. In the sciences, there have been hundreds of
geniuses who aimed straight at the {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}}
{{/U}}from earliest years, and hundreds who showed no {{U}} {{U}} 16
{{/U}} {{/U}}at all. There were the teenage Mayo brothers, who actually
{{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}their father in his crude country
operating room. {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}Harvey Cushing, one
of the world's greatest brain surgeons, might have become a professional
ballplayer if his father hadn't {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}that
he give {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}a try.
【答案解析】语义逻辑题，考查词义辨析。根据and之前的一系列表象：沉溺于白日梦、优柔寡断、反应迟钝，可知这些都不是伟人们成为医生、律师、或是印第安酋长的“迹象”。show no promise意为“没有(成功的)迹象”，符合题意，选D项。
沉溺于白日梦、优柔寡断、反应迟钝并不代表这些伟人在年少时没有梦想、抱负或志向，只是看不出有“成功的迹象”而已，且与第一段句末far more being geniuses in their teens相呼应，因而肯定D项，排除A、B、C三项。
【答案解析】语义逻辑题，考查词义辨析。might have done意为“本来有可能做”，根据上下文，“要不是他父亲______，他本来可能会成为一名职业球员”。在四个选项中，A项“恳求”最符合题意。
B项ask接的从句不能用虚拟语气(空格后的that从句谓滑部分省略了should)，排除。C、D项不合句意。