One of the most successful and influential women in American history, Eleanor Roosevelt once said that she had one regret: she wished she had been   (1)  . Who hasn’t felt the same way? We are all too aware of our physical imperfections. To overcome them, we   (2)    billions of dollars every year to cosmetics, diet products, fashion, and plastic surgery.

  Why do we care so much about   (3)  we look? Because it matters. Because beauty is powerful. Because even if when we learn to value people mostly for being kind and wise and funny, we are still  (4)  by beauty. No matter how much we argue  (5)  it or pretend to be immune（免疫）, beauty   (6)    its power to us. There is simply no  (7)  .

  Aristotle said, “ Beauty is a greater recommendation than any form of   (8)   .” It’s not fair, but it’s   (9)  . We simply treat beautiful people better than we do others.   (10)   a photograph of a beautiful author to an essay,   (11)     people will think that is more creative and more intelligently written than exactly the same essay   (12)   by the photo of a homely author.

  Our   (13)   to physical beauty is not something we can   (14)   at will. We are born with it. Experiments conducted by psychologist Judith J. Langlois   (15)    that even small babies prefer to look at attractive faces and are  (16)  to the same faces which adults have   (17)  to be attractive.

  There are more important things in life than beauty. But as Etcoff   (18)   it, “We have to understand beauty, or we will always be a (n)   (19)   to it.” If you aim to be wise and kind and funny, it doesn’t follow that you can’t also try your best to look beautiful. There is no reason to feel  (20)    about being moved by beauty’s power. It moves us all.