The old idea that child prodigies (神童) “burn themselves” or “overtax their brains” in the early years, therefore, suffer from failure and (at worst) mental illness is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults.
To find this out, 1,500 gifted persons were followed up to their thirty-fifth years with these results:
On adult intelligence tests, they scored as high as they did as children. They were, as a group, in good health, physically and mentally. Eighty-four percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life.
About 70 percent had graduated from colleges, though only 30 percent had graduated with honors. A few had even flunked out (退学), but nearly half of these had returned to graduate.
Of the men, 80 percent were in one of the professions or in business, managerial or semiprofessional jobs. The women who had remained single had offices, business, or professional occupations.
The group had published 90 books and 1,500 articles in scientific, scholarly, and literary magazines and had collected more than 100 patents.
In a material way they didn’t do badly either. Average ine was considerably higher among the gifted people, especially the men, than for the country as a whole, despite their parative youth when last surveyed.
In fact, far from being strange, maladjusted (难以适应) people locked in an ivory tower, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality.
【小题1】The main idea of the passage is . A．that gifted adults can be as intelligent as when they were youngB．that bright children are unlikely to be physically and mentally healthyC．that gifted children are most likely to bee bright grown-upsD．that when the bright children grow up, they bee ordinary【小题2】From the passage, we can conclude that . A．most of the gifted children became white-collar workersB．half of the gifted followed up graduated from collegesC．each of the talented published at least one articleD．successful men got higher ine than successful women【小题3】 Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?A．The gifted could not be fit for their social positions.B．Most of the bright and successful women remained single.C．The gifted men got full marks on intelligence tests.D．Most of the gifted appeared satisfied with their life.【小题4】The explanation of the underlined part “turning their early promises into practical reality” is .A．earning their living and keeping promisesB．doing practical jobs and facing realityC．doing what they have promisedD．realizing what they were expectedC
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(答案→)C
解析：此文的结构比较清晰，第1段提出观点，The old idea that …is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults.虽然第一句很长，而且有难词myth，但如果按照这里提供的方法，注意最基本的主句，就不影响理解，尤其是后面的as a matter of fact突出了事实应该是怎样，才是关键内容，前面一句即使不懂都没有关系。
从行文逻辑考虑，这一段用正反两方面的话表明作者的观点，以下就应当用事实论证。果不其然，从2段始至7段止，作者从几个方面介绍了这些天资聪颖的孩子们所取得的骄人成绩。
最后一段做总结，呼应第一段的观点。In fact, far from being …, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality.
【小题1】 考查文章的主旨大意，对议论文来说，就是作者反复论证的观点，所以答案是C。B、D明显和第一段的观点相反，易排除。相对而言，误选A的学生较多，究其原因在于没有分清文章中的事实和观点。
【小题2】这种提问方式可涵盖全文也可涉及细节；本题主要是细节，并需要简单的概括推理，答案是A。调查的人中大学毕业率是70%，所以B错。文章只给出了出版文章的总数，但没说明该群体具体出版文章数量的比例，所以C也错。D乍一看很对，但本文谈的主题是gifted people，不是successful people，所以是偷换概念，也不对。
【小题3】这是一道细节题。根据原文84 percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life.可确定答案为D，同时排除B。A明显有悖于文章的观点，所以错。C选项中说的满分也不符合原文。
【小题4】本题考查对难句的理解。此句看似简单，划线部分的每一个词都为考生所熟知，但是这里promise指(成功的)希望，而作为动词的promise指承诺或（某物）有可能…。遇到意思不太明确的词或句时，一定要注意根据主旨大意，上下文来确定，因为考查点一定是重要的内容。所以即使不太明白意思这句，也可以从结构判断，既然它是总结，对首段观点做呼应，它和首段第二句意思的肯定接近。所以为D，神童像人们期望的那样长大也有所作为。