请教两个填空题

PP0211UID: 3305612

1. Johnson never ____ to ignore the standards of decent conduct mandated by company policy if _____   compliance with instructions from his superiors enabled him to do so, whatever the effects on his subordinates.

attempted       tacit
scrupled          perfunctory
wished            literal

答案是scruple, literal ,  不懂。。。这里的literal当什么讲呢，好想不太明白句子说什么。。。

2.  To have true disciples, a thinker must not be too ____; any effective intellectual leader depends on the ability of other people to ____ thought processes that did not originate with them.

methodical     stimulate
idiosyncratic   dismiss
self-confident   reenact

答案是idiosyncratic, reenact,   不明白。。。

谢谢各位！

苏梳眠UID: 2717864

1.同义重复。
never ____ to ignore the standards of decent conduct mandated by company policy if _____   compliance with instructions from his superiors enabled him to do so.
从decent conduct mandated by company policy ，说明第一空应是正面词，但从whatever the effects on his subordinates来看，scruple更能对应whatever的情感。
这样第二空，应该与enable对应，literal强度最大，最为符合。
literal  
lit·er·al / `lɪt(ə)rəl / adjective *
1 the literal meaning of a word is its most basic meaning:
He is clearly not using the word dead in its literal sense.
─ compare FIGURATIVE
2 a literal translation is one in which each word is translated separately in a way that does not sound natural
3 literal or literal-minded understanding words or ideas only in a basic and obvious way, and not showing much imagination:
Young children can be very literal.

2.同属同义重复。
thinker与intellectual leader 对应。
先解决第二空，其应与that did not originate with them广义相反，这里reenact十分贴切，也就是旧闻换新颜。
那么第一空就应该是保证others可以reenact的，也就是大众型，非idiosyncratic。