RUTH: Ed, how are you getting on with the reading for our presentation next week?
ED: Well, OK, Ruth – but there’s so much of it.
RUTH: I know, I hadn’t realised birth order was such a popular area of research.
ED: But the stuff on birth order and personality is mostly unreliable. From what I’ve been reading a lot of claims about how your position in the family determines certain personality traits are just stereotypes, with no robust evidence to support them.
RUTH: OK, but that’s an interesting point – we could start by outlining what previous research has shown. There are studies going back over a hundred years.
ED: Yeah – so we could just run through some of the typical traits. Like the consensus seems to be that oldest children are generally less well-adjusted because they never get over the arrival of a younger sibling.
RUTH: Right, but on a positive note, some studies claimed that they were thought to be good a nurturing – certainly in the past when people had large families they would have been expected to look after the younger ones. 【Q21】
ED: There isn’t such a clear picture for middle children – but one trait that a lot of the studies mention is that they are easier to get on with than older or younger siblings.
RUTH: Generally eager to please and helpful 【Q22】 – although that’s certainly not accurate as far as my family goes – my middle brother was a nightmare – always causing fights and envious of whatever I had.
ED: As I said – none of this seems to relate to my own experience. I’m the youngest in my family and I don’t recognise myself in any of the studies I’ve read about. I’m supposed to have been a sociable and confident child who made friends easily 【Q23】 – but I was actually terribly shy.
RUTH: Really? That’s funny. There have been hundreds of studies on twins but mostly about nurture versus nature…
ED: There was one on personality, which said that a twin is likely to be quite shy in social situations 【Q24】 because they always have their twin around to depend on for support.
RUTH: My cousins were like that when they were small – they were only interested in each other and found it hard to engage with other kids. They’re fine now though.
ED: Only children have had a really bad press – a lot of studies have branded them as loners who think the world revolves around them 【Q25】 because they’ve never had to fight for their parents’ attention.
RUTH: That does seem a bit harsh. One category I hadn’t considered before was children with much older siblings – a couple of studies mentioned that these children grow up more quickly and are expected to do basic things for themselves – like getting dressed. 【Q26】
ED: I can see how that might be true – although I expect they’re sometimes the exact opposite – playing the baby role and clamouring for special treatment.
RUTH: What was the problem with most of these studies, do you think?
ED: I think it was because in a lot of cases data was collected from only one sibling per family, who rated him or herself and his or her siblings at the same time.
RUTH: Mmm. Some of the old research into the relationship between birth order and academic achievement has been proved to be accurate though. Performances in intelligence tests decline slightly from the eldest child to his or her younger siblings. This has been proved in lots of recent studies.
ED: Yes. Although what many of them didn’t take into consideration was family size 【Q27】. The more siblings there are, the likelier the family is to have a low socioeconomic status – which can also account for differences between siblings in academic performance.
RUTH: The oldest boy might be given more opportunities than his younger sisters, for example.
ED: Exactly.
RUTH: But the main reason for the marginally higher academic performance of oldest children is quite surprising, I think. It’s not only that they benefit intellectually from extra attention at a young age – which is what I would have expected. It’s that they benefit from being teachers for their younger siblings, by verbalising processes. 【Q28】
ED: Right, and this gives them status and confidence, which again contribute, in a small way, to better performance.
So would you say sibling rivalry has been a useful thing for you?
RUTH: I think so – my younger brother was incredibly annoying and we found a lot but I think this has made me a stronger person. I know how to defend myself 【Q29/Q30】. We had some terrible arguments and I would have died rather than apologise to him – but we had to put up with each other 【Q29/Q30】 and most of the time we co-existed amicably enough.
ED: Yes, my situation was pretty similar. But I don’t think having two older brothers made me any less selfish – I was never prepared to let me brothers use any of my stuff …
RUTH: That’s perfectly normal, whereas …
What did findings of previous research claim about the personality traits a child is likely to have because of their position in the family?
Choose SIX answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-H, next to Questions 21-26
听前预测：定位词为 the eldest child。
题目解析:定位词 the eldest child 的同义替换 oldest children 出现后，首先听到：“... are generally less well-adjusted...” 由此可知 the eldest child 的个性格特征是 less well-adjusted，但题干中没有相应的选项; 接着听到由转折信号词but引导的答案句：“... they were thought to be good at nurturing ... they would have been expected to look after the younger ones.”其中 be good at nurturing 和 look after the younger ones 均对应选项G中的 caring，因此答案为G 。
听前预测：定位词为 a middle child。
题目解析：定位词 a middle child 以复数形式出现后，首先听到：“... they are easier to get on with than older or younger siblings."由此可知 a middle child 的特点是容易相处; 接着另一位学生进行了补充：“Generally eager to please and helpful...” 即渴望取悦并帮助他人，这两处都对应选项F中的 co-operative，意为“愿意配合的;有合作精神的”，因此答案为F。
听前预测：定位词为 the youngest child。
题目解析：首先听到含有定位词信息的句子：“I'm the youngest in my family...” 接着听到由 I'm supposed to 引导的答案句：“I'm supposed to have been a sociable and confident child who made friends easily..." 其中 sociable 和 made friends easily 对应选项 A 中的 outgoing，因此答案为 A。注意后面出现了干扰信息 shy，根据题干要求可知本题要选择的是研究发现，并非说话者的实际情况，故选项E不对。
听前预测：定位词为a twin。
题目解析：定位词a twin 首先以复数形式出现，但其所在句中并未提到与性格相关的信息。接着往下听，可以听到由 There was one on personality 引导的答案句：“...a twin is likely to be quite shy in social situations...”"其中定位词a twin原词重现，shy同义替换了选项E中的introverted，因此答案为E。
听前预测：定位词为 an only child。
题目解析：定位词 an only child 以复数形式出现后，随即听到答案句：“... a lot of studies have branded them as loners who think the world revolves around them...” 其中 loners who think the world revolves around them 意为“认为世界围着他们转的不合群者”，浏览几个选项，只有选项B中的selfish与其对应，因此答案为B。
听前预测：定位词为 a child with much older siblings。
题目解析：定位词 a child with much older siblings 以复数形式出现后，答案句很好听出： "... a couple of studies mentioned that these children grow up more quickly and are expected to do basic things for themselves..." 其中 grow up more quickly 和 do basic things for themselves 对应选项 C 中的 independent，因此答案为C。