1.

Fill in the missing words:

 Given how things are with ourselves and the world, one of the great
questions we face is should we laugh or should we cry? The history of
philosophy has an interesting take on the choice.
 Two of the greatest ____________ of ancient Greece were Democritus and
Heraclitus. Both men, who lived to a very old age, had a deep knowledge of
people and the world but responded to what they knew in _______________
different ways.
 Heraclitus couldn't stop weeping. Democritus couldn't stop laughing. It's
obvious why Heraclitus cried. Once we open our eyes fully to the reality of
existence, it's astonishing we can ever carry on.
 There is simply so much to be sad about. The human animal is a benighted,
deluded, uncontrolled monster, perfectly suited to the error, meanness and
suffering.
 The greater question is how and why one would ever laugh. There is of
course always the option of idiotic laugh, the plastic laugh, the sentimental
callous fool. But this wasn't the philosopher Democritus' way, he laughed
richly and generously not because some ____________ position led him to
naively misunderstand how bad things could be.
 His good humor wasn't delusional nor was it simply a random quirk of
temperament. Democritus, laughed in a very particular and highly admirable
style because of the way he thought about the world.
 He was a _______________ realist. He knew everything there is to know,
about the human tendency to greed, murder and lust and of our
constant exposure to random accident and misfortune.
 And ultimately Democritus was so __________ of the darkness, he knew so
much about suffering and risk. He no longer felt he had to register this
constantly at the front of his mind in order to do them justice.
 They seem to him an entirely obvious _____________ fact about existence.
He could be cheerful, because anything nice, sweet or charming that came
his way, was immediately experienced as a bonus, a gratifying addition to an
originally __________ starting point.
 By keeping the dark backdrop of life always in mind, Democritus
________________ his appreciation of whatever stood out against it. A
pleasant thing that happened to him wasn't taken to be a feeble
____________ for his larger dashed hopes.
 It was a delightful, slightly improbable, but very noteworthy backing of an
always __________ tragic trend. Democritus who's learned to be enjoying
parties wine and drinking.
 "A life without _____________ is a long road without an inn" he wrote. He
didn't believe that he had to feel constantly sad to prove that he recognized
life to be sad. He danced and drank because of a rightful confidence that he
had already done justice and would in the future again have to fully do
justice to the sadness of things.
 Democritus was aiming at an intelligent kind of cheerfulness one that admits
from the outset that life is fundamentally grim but that uses this despair as
a catalyst for a more vivid engagement with the beautiful or kind moments
that do come ones way.
 Like an English person who is especially adept to _______________ value
from the last day of summer or a condemned man who perfectly savors the
last meal before being led to the firing squad. Democritus was a master
practitioner of that highly admirable state of mind: Cheerful despair.
 Once we've acquired the skill of cheerful despair life acquires a distinctive
new kind of sweetness in all its pleasant structures. Every pain-________
day is a blessing.
 We're __________ and touched when once in a while someone seems to
understand a few things we say or does something ______________ kind.
We enjoy the distinctive cheerfulness of those who've done all the crying
they can and are determined, for a while at least, to hold on to the light.
2. Write a short summary for the audio: