Were you the first or the last child in your family? Or were you a middle or an only child? Some people think ___ matters where you were born in your family. But there are different ideas about what birth order means. Some people say that oldest children, ____ are smart and strongwilled , are very likely ____ (succeed). The reason ____ this is simple. Parents have a lot of time for their first child and give him or her a lot of attention. An only child will succeed for ____ same reason.
What happens to the ____ children in the family? Middle children don't get so much attention, so they don't feel that important. If a family has many children, the middle one sometimes gets lost in the crowd. The youngest child, ____, often gets special treatment. Often this child grows up to be funny. But a recent study saw things quite ____ (differ). The study found that first children believed in family rules. They didn't take many chances in ____ lives. They usually ____ (follow) orders. Rules didn't mean as much to later children in the family. They took chances and they often did better in life.