The concept of a “born leader” seems so fanciful that it belongs on the cover of a bad business book. But it turns out that born leaders are real, and researchers have discovered a key factor, which isn’t genes, parents, or peers, but birth order.
First-born children are 30 percent more likely to be CEOs or politicians, according to a new paper by several economists, Sandra E. Black at the University of Texas-Austin, and Bjorn Ockert and Erik Gronqvist at Sweden’s Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy. The paper, which only looked at boys, found that first-borns stay in school longer, make more money, have a higher IQ, and even spend more time on homework than on television,
The idea that birth order might shape personality goes back at least to the 1920s, when Alfred Adler theorized that first-born children develop a “taste for power” at a young age, since they can dominate their younger siblings. He went on to say young children are spoiled and become dependent on their parents (the “baby of the family” effect), while middle children, being often in a war for their parents’ attention, are status-conscious and naturally competitive.
Obtaining personality from birth may strike you. But Adler’s hypotheses (假说) have held up in numerous studies. In a 2013 paper, “Strategic Parenting, Birth Order and School Performance,” V. Joseph Hotz, a professor of economics at Duke University, and Juan Pantano, a professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis, used American data to show that school performance declines with birth order.
The researchers chalked their findings up to what they called the “reputational model of strategic parenting.” Put simply, parents invest a lot of time in establishing rules for their first child, building a reputation for toughness that they hope will pass down to later children. As a result, first-borns are doubly blessed—having too much of their parents’ attention, and then entrusted to act as the rules enforcer of the family, which helps them build intelligence, discipline, and leadership qualities. In the survey, parents report that they consider their older children more successful, and they are less likely to discipline their later-born children for improper behaviors, such as acting up or not doing homework.
This new study relies on Swedish data, and it comes to a similar conclusion. First-borns aren’t just healthier or smarter, but also they score higher on “emotional stability, persistence, social outgoingness, willingness to assume responsibility and ability to take the initiative.” Its researchers ruled out genetic factors; in fact, they uncovered evidence that later-born children might be healthier than first-borns.
Instead, the differences among siblings had everything to do with family dynamics in the children’s early years. First, having more children means parents can spend less time on each child, and as the parental investment declines, so may IQ.
Second, the most important effect, the researchers said, might not be the “strategic parenting” but something more like “strategic brothering.” As siblings compete for their parents’ love (or ice cream, or toys), they occupy certain positions---older siblings demonstrate their competence and power, while younger siblings develop more creative strategies to get attention. This effect seems particularly strong among later-born boys with older brothers. Younger brothers are much more likely to enter “creative” occupations ---like architect, writer, actor, singer, or photographer---if they have older brothers, rather than older sisters. In other words, among young brothers, specialization within the family forecasts specialization in the workforce.
There is a considerable implication in this idea that family dynamics during childhood can shape adult personality. Young children are highly sensitive to their environment, in ways that often have lasting effects.
1.First-born children are more likely to be CEOs or politicians because _____.
A. they are born to have leadership qualities
B. teachers and parents invest more time in educating them
C. later-born children need them to set good examples
D. they have a lot of practice in bossing around their younger siblings
2.What can we learn about Alfred Adler?
A. His research was based on American data.
B. His hypotheses were applied in many studies.
C. He held the idea that first-born children should be independent.
D. He thought that children’s personality was affected by birth order.
3.According to the 2013 paper, if a child does not behave as well as his elder brother at school, it may be due to the fact that he ______.
A. has a lower IQ and EQ
B. is badly treated by school teachers
C. receives less attention from his parents
D. is spoiled too much by other family members
4.What are the findings of the new study based on?
A. Swedish data on boys.
B. Controlled experiments on children.
C. Differences between first-born and later-borns.
D. The observation of children’s development across Sweden.
5.The new study has found that later-born children ______.
A. feel disappointed at their parents’ attitude to them
B. are always in a process of self-discovery
C. may be more trustworthy and creative
D. might be physically strong
6.According to the author, ______.
A. parents should create a good family environment for their children
B. children should be given equal attention by their parents
C. girls’ development is seldom affected by birth order
D. boys should be forbidden to order others around
Even then my only friends were made of paper and ink. At school I had learned to read and write long before the other children. Where my school friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets and people. Words and the mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I saw in them a key with which I could unlock a boundless world, a haven from that home, those streets, and those troubled days in which even I could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me. My father didn’t like to see books in the house. There was something about them---apart from the letters he could not recognize---that offended him. He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my hands and flung it out of the window.
“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”
My father was not a miser and, despite the hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like the other children. He was convinced that I spent them on sunflower seeds, or sweets, but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed, and when I’d collected enough coins I’d secretly rush out to buy myself a book.
My favorite place in the whole city was the Sempere & Sons Bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It smelled of old paper and dust and it was my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay for the books he placed in my hands, but when he wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to collect on the counter before I left. It was only small change---if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance (极少的报酬), I would probably have been able to afford only a booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed there forever.
One Christmas Sempere gave me that best gift I had ever received. It was an old volume, read and experienced to the full.
“Great expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read on the cover.
I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who frequented his establishment and, judging by the care with which he handled the volume, I thought perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.
“A friend of yours?”
“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your friend too.”
That afternoon I took my new friend home, hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead, and I read Great Expectations about nine times, partly because I had no other book at hand, partly because I did not think there could be a better one in the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.
1.The underlined word “haven” in Paragraph 1 probably means “______”.
A. favor B. mask C. consultant D. shelter
2.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ______.
A. the people who played a part in the author’s story
B. the difficulties the author ran into in his childhood
C. the author’s affection for books as a child
D. the author’s dreams before he met Sempere
3.The word “friend” is used twice by Sempere to ______.
A. emphasize the emotional connection Sempere feels to reading
B. imply that Sempere had one close friend in his lifetime
C. underline the importance of the author’s connection to Sempere
D. stress how friendships helped the author deal with difficulties
4.Why does the author consider Great Expectations to be the best gift?
A. Because he wanted to make the acquaintance of the book’s author.
B. Because the gift meant that Sempere regarded him as a special friend.
C. Because reading the book convinced him that he wanted to be a writer.
D. Because he’d only ever been given sweets and snacks as gifts in the past.
Humans kill large carnivores---a category of animals that includes wolves, bears, lions, tigers and pumas---at more than nine times their death rate in the wild. Although they may not be our prey (猎物) in the traditional sense, new research shows that some of the world’s biggest carnivores are responding to humans in a way that resembles how prey animals react to predators (捕食者). Biologists at the Santa Cruz Puma Project, an ongoing research effort in the mountains of California’s central coast, report that even the scary puma, or mountain lion, shows its fearful side when people are around.
In a recent study, the researchers followed 17 mountain lions outfitted with GPS collars (项圈) to the animals’ deer kill sites. Once the cats naturally left the scene between feedings, ecologist Justin A. Smith, now at the University of California Berkeley, and her team trained motion-activated cameras on the prey bodies. On the animals’ return, the cameras triggered nearby speakers, which broadcast recordings of either frogs croaking (呱呱叫) or humans conversing.
The pumas almost always fled immediately on hearing the human voices, and many never returned to resume feeding or took a long time to do so. But they only rarely stopped eating or fled when they heard the frogs. They also spent less than half as much time feeding during the 24 hours after first hearing human chatter, compared with hearing the frogs, the team reported.
The human presence in such a situation has far-reaching consequences. A previous study found that Santa Cruz pumas living near residential areas killed 36 percent more deer than those in less populated places. The new finding could explain why: if the cats are scared away from their kills before they finish feeding, they may be taking more prey to compensate. And fewer deer could mean more plants go uneaten, according to Chris Darimont, a professor of conservation science at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, who was not involved in the study. Thus, fear of humans may alter the entire food chain.
“Humans are the most significant source of death for pumas in this population even though the cats are not legally hunted for food or sport,” Smith says. “Many are hunted illegally, struck by vehicles or legally killed by governmental agencies as a means of protecting livestock. So they have good reason to be fearful of us,” she adds. Darimont predicts other large carnivores would show similar responses because humans have effectively become the planet’s top predator---even if we often do not eat what we kill.
1.How did researchers make the discovery?
A. By fitting GPS collars to the animals’ prey and following them.
B. By getting to the kill sties and broadcasting all types of sounds.
C. By observing pumas’ reaction to frogs’ croaking or humans’ voices.
D. By counting how long pumas spent eating in different backgrounds.
2.According to the passage, humans’ presence will lead to ______.
A. less deer being eaten B. more plants left uneaten
C. pumas occupying less populated areas D. more puma feeding times within a day
3.Smith’s attitude towards the government hunting pumas is ______.
A. doubtful B. disapproving C. disappointing D. objective
Bruny Island and the D' Entrecasteaux Channel
*Duration: 4 days, 3 nights
*From AU$1, 200.00 per person
Sail aboard Yukon on “the channel”, a favorite cruising ground for the Tasmanian sailor. This partially sheltered water way between the Tasmanian mainland and Bruny Island has a lot of anchorages (锚地) and beaches. An ideal passage for a short break, this 3-night voyage is a good introduction to coastal cruising aboard Yukon.
This is an excellent opportunity to take a comfortable low-impact holiday and feel the amazing experience of a wooden ship under sail at sea.
Indicative Itinerary (旅行路线)
*Waterloo Bay
*Egg and Bacon Bay
*Mickeys Bay (Bruny Island)
*Partridge Island
*The Quarries
*Great Taylors Bay
Possible Wildlife Encounters (相遇)
Seals, dolphins, whales and birdlife.
All destinations are considered with regard to weather and an individual’s capacity. The prime objective of the voyages is to enjoy “the channel” and Bruny Island’s coastal surrounds, whilst taking advantage of Yukon’s roomy comfort. A series of short guided/unguided walks will be a part of the daily program.
Please contact us for availability.
Includes:
All meals from Lunch on day 1 to Lunch on day 4
All accommodation on board the Yukon
The return trip to Franklin
Phone:
0447 972342or 0498 578535
Address:
Franklin Marina
3333 Huon Highway Franklin
The Yukon is at the jetty (码头) near the Franklin Wooden Boat Centre.
1.What will the tourists probably do during the travel?
A. Learn to sail. B. Watch whale hunting.
C. Go downtown Tasmania. D. Enjoy Yukon’s large space.
2.What can we learn about the cost of the trip?
A. It is flexible. B. It is fairly high.
C. It includes daily three meals. D. It offers only a one-way ticket.
I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the ______ at a young age. Sometime in the middle of the fourth grade, I ______ trying. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was lazy, rebellious, ______.
It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the ______ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was ______ lost, and using drugs as a way to ______ the fact that I had no education and was ______ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day.
____, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any ______ in your life, if you have the right ______. Mine came from a surprising source.
It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of ____responsibility, now I was in charge of something so ______. Over the years, as I grew into the ______ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.
It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books. ______, I practised reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role ____, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I ______ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done ______, but all things considered it was one of the best days in my life. Today, I’m a full-time college student, studying to ______ sociologist.
It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great ______ stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they ______ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.
1.A. determination B. wish C. application D. choice
2.A. started B. stopped C. considered D. fancied
3.A. skeptical B. defensive C. disrespectful D. suspicious
4.A. consequence B. compromise C. compensation D. competence
5.A. alternatively B. hopelessly C. approximately D. undoubtedly
6.A. do with B. deal with C. conflict with D. meet with
7.A. struck B. stuck C. lost D. taken
8.A. Nevertheless B. Meanwhile C. Furthermore D. Therefore
9.A. cost B. corner C. point D. occasion
10.A. ambition B. technique C. opportunity D. motivation
11.A. avoiding B. preventing C. undertaking D. overcoming
12.A. flexible B. enterprising C. fragile D. authentic
13.A. name B. statue C. title D. career
14.A. By and by B. Over and over C. Back and forward D. Now and then
15.A. model B. leader C. example D. tutor
16.A. got through B. went through C. pull through D. comb through
17.A. for the first time B. in the first place C. at first hand D. in first place
18.A. become B. turn C. grow D. make
19.A. turn-around B. take-off C. pull-out D. turn-off
20.A. appealed B. applied C. attached D. adapted
—That was rather a tough question. How did you get it right?
—To tell the truth, I just ________.
A. burnt the midnight oil B. was left to sink or swim
C. played it safe D. took a shot in the dark
