A sentence that i cant understand

I have a huge problem with this sentence. The task is simple: Complete the passage by supplying ONE English word wherever something is missing. So here is the sentence that is overwhelming for me. I just dont understand the grammatic at the beginning.

________ must have often _________all of us as intensely curious is just how many literary geniuses have had the ability of detecting things that are still in the process of becoming. 

Does someone has a clue what i should put to those empty places?

________ must have often _________all of us as intensely curious is just how many literary geniuses have had the ability of detecting things that are still in the process of becoming.

Are you positive the 'as' is in the original? If so, then I think we need to take the word 'curious' in its meaning of odd rather than connected with curiosity.

What must have often marked/shown/revealed all of us as intensely curious is just how many literary geniuses  etc etc....

the "as" is there, Im positive about it. This sentence is from an example test for an university where im trying to apply to.
And there is another hard sentence and i hope that you could take a look at it.

In this ________ it is interesting to place the remarks of Charles Darwin _______ certain observations on science made a good
_______ earlier by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

oh and, now that sentence makes sense, thank you,

Does this question stand alone with no hints?

(Darwin wrote almost a century later than Coleridge.) 

Here's all I can come up with at the moment:

In this context it is interesting to place the remarks of Charles Darwin alongside certain observations on science made a good
deal earlier by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

 

So, it seems like it's the kind of question that could have more than one answer, as long as the answer makes a sentence that expresses a reasonable concept with grammatical correctness. 

I suppose mine above might then qualify.