(单词翻译:单击)
Ed, how are you getting on with the reading for our presentation next week?
艾德，我们下周演讲的阅读材料准备得怎么样了？
Well, OK, Ruth-but there's so much of it.
好吧，露丝，但是相关的阅读材料太多了。
I know, I hadn't realised birth order was such a popular area of research.
我知道，我没有意识到出生顺序是一个如此受欢迎的研究领域。
But the stuff on birth order and personality is mostly unreliable.
但有关出生顺序和性格的信息大多不可靠。
From what I've been reading a lot of the claims about how your position in the family determines certain personality traits are just stereotypes, with no robust evidence to support them.
据我所知，很多关于你在家庭中的位置如何决定某些性格特征的说法只是刻板印象，没有强有力的证据支持。
OK, but that's an interesting point – we could start by outlining what previous research has shown.
好吧，但这是一个有趣的观点——我们可以先概述一下以前的研究结果。
There are studies going back over a hundred years.
有些研究可以追溯到一百多年前。
Yeah-so we could just run through some of the typical traits.
是的，所以我们可以只介绍一些典型的特征。
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.
就像人们普遍认为的那样，年龄最大的孩子通常适应能力较差，因为他们永远无法适应弟弟妹妹的到来。
Right, but on a positive note, some studies claimed that they were thought to be good at nurturing-certainly in the past when people had large families they would have been expected to look after the younger ones.
没错，但从积极的方面来看，一些研究声称，他们被认为擅长养育孩子——当然，在过去，当人们有大家庭时，他们应该照顾年幼的孩子。
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.
对于排行中间的孩子目前还没有一个清晰的描述——但很多研究提到了一个特点，那就是他们比哥哥姐姐或弟弟妹妹更容易相处。
Generally eager to please and helpful – 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.
一般来说，他们渴望取悦别人，乐于助人——尽管就我的家庭而言，这肯定是不准确的——我二哥是个噩梦——他总是引起争吵，嫉妒我所拥有的一切。
As I said – none of this seems to relate to my own experience.
正如我所说的，所有这些似乎都与我自己的经历无关。
I'm the youngest in my family and I don't recognise myself in any of the studies I've read about.
我是家里最小的，在我读过的任何一篇研究论文中，我都找不到贴合自己的描述。
I'm supposed to have been a sociable and confident child who made friends easily – but I was actually terribly shy.
我应该是一个善于交际、自信的很容易交到朋友的孩子，但实际上我非常害羞。
Really? That's funny. There have been hundreds of studies on twins but mostly about nurture versus nature…
真的吗？真有趣。已经有数百项关于双胞胎的研究，但大多数是关于后天培养和先天的关系……
There was one on personality, which said that a twin is likely to be quite shy in social situations because they always have their twin around to depend on for support.
其中有一项关于性格的研究称，双胞胎之一在社交场合可能会很害羞，因为他们身边总有另一个人可以依靠。
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.
我的表兄妹小时候就是这样的，他们只对彼此感兴趣，很难与其他孩子打交道。
They're fine now though. Only children have had a really bad press – a lot of studies have branded them as loners who think the world revolves around them because they've never had to fight for their parents' attention.
不过，他们现在都很好。独生子女一直饱受诟病，很多研究称他们是不合群的人，他们认为世界都是围绕着他们转的，因为他们从来不需要争取父母的关注。
That does seem a bit harsh.
这似乎有点苛刻。
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.
我以前没有考虑过的一个类别是那些有比自己大得多的兄弟姐妹的孩子，有几项研究提到，这些孩子成长得更快，且应该自己做一些基本的事情，比如穿衣服。
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.
我知道这可能是真的，尽管我认为他们有时恰恰相反——扮演婴儿的角色，并叫嚣着要特殊待遇。
