Miles was born in Alton, a city on the Mississippi River in Illinois on May 26, 1926. Miles's father was a dentist, while his mother was a music teacher. Miles had a good childhood, catching fish and riding horses with his older sister and younger brother. He was known as a naughty boy in school.

He recalls his story, "By the age of 12, music had become the most important thing in my life." His mother, a violinist herself, dearly wanted her son to play the violin. But brass (铜管) was Miles's calling, and he remembers arguments between their parents as his dad overruled her to fight his son's corner. He received his first trumpet (喇叭) in 1935 and began weekly music lessons with his father's friend Mr. Elwood, his life-long teacher.

Talking about his school days, Miles said that Mr. Buchanan was the biggest influence on his life. He was the person who took Miles all the way into music at that time. He wanted to be a musician that he had dreamed.

When he was 16, Miles met his girlfriend, Irene Birth. Although she was a beautiful young woman in many ways, it was her easy-going character that attracted Miles. At the weekends, Miles and Irene would take the bus over the Mississippi River to St Louis to watch movies and go dancing. Although Miles was too shy to really enjoy dancing, he always felt confident when he danced with Irene.

When he turned 17, she persuaded him to ask for a job in his band—Eddie

 Handle's Blue Devils. It worked. Joining the band was a breakthrough for Miles, and marked the time when he first began to write and arrange music.

It was during those hard days in a small community when food was in short supply that I used to stop by Mr. Miller's stand for1.

One particular day, while Mr. Miller was2some potatoes for me I noticed a small boy3admiring a basket of green peas. Soon I was also4to the fresh green peas. The boy left. Mrs. Miller5to me and said, “There are two other such boys in our6, all from poor families. Jim always offers to7our produce for their marbles (弹珠). He somehow makes them believe he likes red marbles8. Sometimes he even sends them home with some peas for9." I left the stand,10with this man.

Years later, I went back to visit some11in that community and while I was there I learned Mr. Miller had died. I agreed to12my friends to see Mrs. Miller. Upon our arrival, we offered whatever words of13. Ahead of us were three young men. They moved to the casket (棺椁). Mrs. Miller's eyes followed them14each young man placed his own15hand over the cold pale hand and then left.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and mentioned the16of the marbles. She said, "Those three young men were the boys. They told me how they17Jim's kindness."

"We've never had much18," she said, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the19man." Then she lifted her husband's lifeless fingers.20beneath the hand were three shining, red marbles!

Digital technology—email and smart phones especially—have vastly improved workers' ability to be productive outside of a traditional office. Even so, most white-collar work still happens in an office. One reason is that, according to findings of a new survey of office workers conducted by Wakefield Research for the IT company Citrix, most bosses are doubtful about remote working. Half of the workers say their boss doesn't accept it, and only 35 percent say it's tolerated.

Skeptical bosses will likely have their doubts reinforced (加深) by the same survey, which shows that 43 percent of workers say they've watched TV or a movie while "working" remotely, while 35 percent have done housework, and 28 percent have cooked dinner.

It is true, however, that working at home makes people much more efficient (高效的), because it allows workers to take care of annoying housework while still getting their jobs done. It's much faster, for example, to shop for groceries at a quarter to three than to stand in line during the after-work rush.

The fact that such practices remain officially unaccepted reflects how far we haven't come as a society from the days when we expected every full-time worker to be supported by a full-time homemaker.

More broadly the Wakefield survey suggests that employers may be missing a low-cost way to give workers something of value. Sixty-four percent of those survey participants who haven't worked remotely would rather give up some bonuses in order to get even one day a week working from home. Under such circumstances, smart firms need to find ways to let their employees have enough flexibility (灵活性) to manage their time efficiently.