Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 35 to 42.

  A massage is relaxing, and makes you feel great, but did you know that it's also good for you? That's what doctors are now saying. Massage relieves pain and anxiety, eases depression and speeds up recovery from medical problems.

  Research has shown that people of all ages benefit from touch. Premature infants who are held develop faster than those left alone, and healthy babies who get a lot of physical contact cry less and sleep better. Researchers are not sure why this occurs but they have also found out that touch can slow heart rate, lower blood pressure and increase levels of seratonin, the brain chemical that is linked to well-being. It also decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and this in turn increases your resistance to illness.

Massage also speeds up healing. Bone-marrow transplant patients who were given massages had better neurological function than those who weren't. Furthermore, massage reduced pain by 37% in patients with chronic muscle aches.

  Giving someone a massage may be as good as getting one. A study conducted by the university of Miami found that mothers suffering from depression felt better after massaging their infants. In that same study, elderly volunteers who massaged infants reported feeling less anxious and depressed.

  It even works when you do it yourself; 43% of headache sufferers reported getting relief after massaging their temples and neck and smokers who were taught self-massage while trying to quit felt less anxiety and smoked less.

The author suggests that touch  _________.

A. increases levels of the stress honnone cortisol.

B. makes your heart beat faster.

C. increases the feeling of well-being.

D. helps you deal with your feelings.