My father was【C1】_____a strong man who loved being active, but a terrible illness【C2】__all that away. Now he can no longer walk. And he must sit quietly in a chair all day. Even talking is【C3】__. One night, I went to visit him with my sisters, we started talking about life, and I told them about one of my【C4】__. I said that we must always give things up as we grow — our youth, our beauty, our friends — but it always【C5】__that after we give something up, we gain something new in its place. Then suddenly my father spoke up. He said, “But, Peter. I gave up【6】_____! What did I gain?” I thought and thought, but I could not think of anything to say.

【C7】________. he answered his own question: “I gained the love of my family.” I looked at my sisters, and saw tears in their eyes, along with hope and thankfulness.

I was also【C8】_____by his words. After that, when I began to feel irritated at someone, I would remember his words and become【C9】_____. If he could replace his great pain with a feeling of love for others, then I should be able to give up my small irritations. In this way, I learned the power of acceptance from my father.

Sometimes I【C10】________what other things I could learned from him if I had listened more carefully when I was a boy. For now, though, I am grateful for this gift.

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as “a bodily exercise precious to health.” But like some claims to the contrary, laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness. Laughter does【C1】_____short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels,【C2】__heart rate and oxygen consumption. But because hard laughter is difficult to【C3】__, a good laugh is unlikely to have【C4】_____benefits the way, say, walking or jogging does.

【C5】_____, instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the opposite, studies dating back to the 1930’s indicate that laughter 【C6】_____muscles, decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down.

Such bodily reaction might conceivably help【C7】_____the effects of psychological stress. Anyway, the act of laughing probably does produce other types of【C8】__feedback that improve an individual’s emotional state.【C9】__one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted in physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry【C10】_____they are sad but they become sad when the tears begin to flow.

Although sadness also【C11】_____tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow【C12】__muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Wurzburg in Germany asked volunteers to hold a pen either with their teeth-thereby creating an artificial smile — or with their lips, which would produce a(n)【C13】__expression. Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles【C14】__more exuberantly to funny cartons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown, suggesting that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around.【C15】_____. the physical act of laughter could improve mood.