题目内容：

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