A headache can go away. You wouldn't use heal, although you could say that someone has recovered from a headache. You wouldn't use 'obtain' with 'reputation', but you can certainly use 'get'. 'The golf course has gotten(Am English) a reputation as the areas best,' is acceptable. "gain', 'build', and 'earn' all work in this sentence as well.

Thank you very much for your much detailed explanations ^ㅡ^ I was surprised! I think I got the differences fully. My book misinforms me sometimesㅠ ㅠ.. so I need corrections. Thanks Antara for being so generous with your time again =D Have a good day!

I am sorry for the typos and mistakes. In my browser the comment window is small, so it is hard to proofread what I write before I post. Here are the most glaring ones from comment#1: __" 1) "Headache" can "go away" (on ***its*** own, or because somebody did something to make it go away)" <- I hate it when I make that mistake, sorry! "its" means "belonging to it", and "it's" means "it is". I am sorry if my typo made the sentence confusing. __"John was so tired after 10 hours of constant pain that it took ***him*** 4 hours of sleep to *recover from* his headache". Here I was changing my sample sentence and forgot to change all the pronouns. I hope the sentence makes better sense now.

2) When someone says: "he's got a good reputation", that person is stating a neutral fact that the good reputation is there, but there is no personal opinion involved. However, when a person says "He's earned his good reputation", that not only states that the reputation is there, but also adds the speaking person's opinion/declaration of knowledge that the "good reputation" is legitimate and fully deserved. Alternative variations of this opinionated statement: "He fully deserved/deserves his reputation" (<-here there might not even be a mention of whether the reputation is good or bad - if the quality of reputation is already known to the listeners, the person saying this is only validating the already known facts), "He gained his good reputation while volunteering at the shelter" - here the person offers not just the opinion on the reputation being deserved, but also explains how it was done - so if you use "gained a reputation", you usually also specify how exactly. If any of this is too confusing - ask, and I'll try to explain better.

Since the question is resolved, I cannot add a proper answer, but here is a more in-depth answer: 1) "Headache" can "go away" (on it's own, or because somebody did something to make it go away) so "go away" is the verb that can actually describe the action of the "headache" itself. When it comes to "headache" (as opposed to "wound", for example) it cannot "heal" itself. I think this is because there is no way for the healing process can be observed, and healing is a process that usually requires some external assessment. Only an external force can "cure" "headaches" and since "cure" as a verb usually implies a long process, it would not be applicable to a single instance of a "headache" (which usually lasts several hours or so). But somebody can cure "headaches" (note the plural) - as in chronic or frequent headaches. Example: "Jane suffered from regular headaches since childhood. Now, at last, the famous doctor was able to cure her headaches." Finally, only the person who suffers from headaches can recover *from* a headache. Recovery is the process of returning to previous/normal state. Headache's normal state is to hurt :) Therefore if the "headache" itself were to "recover", it would mean that the headache was back in full force - quite the opposite of desired effect :). So a person can recover from a headache, especially if it's a very strong headache that incapacitated a person for a while or caused some serious damage (like hallucinations, for example). An example usage would be: "John was so tired after 10 hours of constant pain that it took me 4 hours of sleep to *recover from* his headache". Does this make sense or is it too confusing?