A few years ago, I was having dinner with some good friends from work to celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday. As we were finishing up that evening, one of my friends told us a very sad story about something that had happened the day before. Her son’s friend was in his md-twenties and self-employed. He lived on the second floor of a house nearby. Someone who lied on the first floor had been smoking and fell asleep. The house burned down. All the people escaped, but the house was completely destroyed with everything in it.

All this young man had were the clothes on his back and his pickup truck. He had no family in the area and nowhere to go. My friend was putting him up for a few days until he could decide what to do next.

Those of us sitting at the dinner table were horrified. Everyone started opening their wallets to contribute money. My friend put up her hand and said, “He will not accept money. We tried to persuade him, but he thinks it is charity and won’t take it. All he wants is a warm coat and some used clothing if anyone has some.”

We were all more than happy to fulfil this request and were told that he wore a size 2XL. None of us knew men who wore that size, so it was going to be a bit of a challenge to take care of this quickly.

It was a typically cold New York Christmas, and I couldn’t imagine him without a coat. I shed tears on the drive home, a combination of grateful tears for the many blessings I had in my life and sad tears for this poor young man and his troubles.

I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a very clear thought in my mind. I was to find this young man a coat.

The next morning, I went to a nearby charity shop and a lady greeted me with a smile.

A few minutes later, she came out of the backroom with a brand-new coat.

3 . Gould a hug a day keep the doctor away? The answer may be a resounding “yes!” _____ helping you feel close and _____ to people you care about, it turns out that hugs can bring a _____ of health benefits to your body and mind. Believe it or not, a warm embrace might even help you _____ getting sick this winter.

In a recent study _____ over 400 healthy adults, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania examined the effects of perceived social support and the receipt of hugs _____ the participants’ susceptibility to developing the common cold after being _____ to the virus. People who perceived greater social support were less likely to come _____ with a cold, and the researchers _____ that the stress-reducing effects of hugging ______ about 32 percent of that beneficial effect.______ among those who got a cold, the ones who felt greater social support and received more frequent hugs had less severe ______.

“Hugging protects people who are under stress from the ______ risk for colds that’s usually ______ with stress,” notes Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie. Hugging “is a marker of intimacy and helps ______ the feeling that others are there to help ______ difficulty.”

Some experts ______ the stress-reducing, health-related benefits of hugging to the release of oxytocin, often called “the bonding hormone”______ it promotes attachment in relationships, including that between mothers and their newborn babies. Oxytocin is made primarily in the central lower part of the brain, and some of it is released into the bloodstream. But some of it ______ in the brain, where it ______ mood, behavior and physiology. (283 words)