1 . My first job at KCRW was Ruth Seymour’s assistant. Soon after, I became Assistant General Manager and worked closely with her for 16 years. Therefore, I have had the opportunity to observe her and the enormous impact she had on KCRW and the other radio stations.

Ruth did nothing conventionally and nothing she created was a reaction to anything. She created KCRW not to gain the most listeners or to win any awards but to be an intellectual force for arts, culture and smart ideas. She wanted to start the conversation, not just contribute to it.

Ruth had the highest artistic standards, which is why KCRW aired radio dramas like the 10-hour Babbitt and 30-hour Ulysses. She created Jewish Short Stories From Eastern Europe and Beyond in two audio collections that featured famous actors reading the work of Jewish authors like Sholem Aleichem, Philip Roth and Isaac Bashevis Singer. KCRW sold more of those collections than anything else in our history.

Ruth went to a newsstand every day and read articles from New York Times, word for word, on the air at noon because ordinary people couldn’t easily get that paper then. She discovered people who matched her intellect at dinners or parties and gave them on-air shows on journalism, literature, film, art, theater, travel, dance or music.

She said it best, “I wanted to do the program as an act of love and respect.”

When she came to KCRW in 1977, she found herself building the station in a junior high classroom right off the playground. Now KCRW could be heard across Los Angeles. Most powerfully, the radio format (总体安排) she created continues to be used by radio stations — news of the day, debates of ideas, art, artists, food, literature and film.

Outspoken and fearless women leaders were rare in the 1960s and 1970s — in fact, women couldn’t get credit cards apart from their husbands until 1974 — which is why her achievements are so singular.

Beth was in hospital with viral pneumonia (肺炎). She felt down and she missed her parents terribly, who were far away in Europe on business. She lay in her bed crying when one nurse came in and recognized her sadness and loneliness. The nurse looked at the pale little girl worriedly, knowing that one of the greatest setbacks to recovery is often depression. Like the rest of the medical staff, she was overworked and couldn’t sit and keep Beth company all the time. Then she had a brilliant idea! Maybe she could kill two birds with one stone! Just at the end of the corridor (走廊), she had a patient who was just as lonely as Beth...

The nurse walked into Georgiana Halston’s room and smiled, “Didn’t you tell me you have a granddaughter, Mrs Halston?” Georgiana, who was lying on the bed and looking listlessly (没精打采地) out of the window, sighed. “Yes. I have a 7-year-old granddaughter, but she is in Canada. And she hardly calls me, because I don’t know what she like and she think it boring to chat with me.”

“Well,” the nurse said. “I have a 7-year-old down the corridor who is very lonely and needs a friend. I wonder if you could cheer her up a bit and be that friend?”

“But my leg hurts,” Georgiana said. “I can’t walk. You know that.”

“I know that your doctor want you out of bed and to walk around,” the nurse retorted. “If you don’t move, you’ll end up bedridden!”

Georgiana had been diagnosed with a form of bone disease and got a big operation. She was still in bed, but she should be up to exercise her leg. However, the truth is that she was afraid her leg would suffer terrible pain. After the nurse left, Georgiana lay on her bed for a long time, feeling sad for herself. Georgiana looked at the walker next to her bed and sighed. The matter of the lonely little girl haunted her.

Then Georgiana picked her walker and headed for the girl’s room.

A while later, the nurse appeared in Beth’s room.

What my father wore embarrassed me! I wanted him to dress like a doctor or lawyer, but he always dressed like my father, getting up before dawn every day to make breakfast for my mother and me.

We lived in South Texas, where my father worked as a repairman. He often wore a pair of jeans and a shirt, keeping his pencils, glasses and wrenches (扳手) in his breast pocket. His boots were those with steel toes that made them difficult to pull off his feet, which I sometimes helped him with when he returned from repairing cars — his job that also shamed me.

I blamed the way he dressed. I felt that my classmates laughed at me because they’d seen him mowing lawns (修剪草坪) in cut-off jeans and black boots. My classmates’ families paid men to beautify their lawns, while their fathers travelled in the bay wearing lemon-yellow sweaters and expensive shoes.

He preferred clothes that allowed him the freedom to move under cars. So even when taking part in a school trip with me, he was dressed in his repairman’s suit. On the school bus to the campsite, all students on the bus happily chatted with their parents except me, who lowered the head, avoiding spotting my classmates’ mocking glance (讥笑的眼光) or hearing their jokes, which I thought was about nothing else but what my father wore.

I regretted telling my parents the school trip, and I was very angry why my mother had no spare time while my father happened to have a vacation. But my father failed to read my mind. He was very happy, whistling a tune along the way.

Though my father didn’t sense my bad mood, the school bus seemed as sad as I was. It drove more and more slowly and finally it stopped on the roadside. The driver got out to check the bus but found nothing wrong. Students and parents on the bus began to whisper about what was happening, worried that the delay might spoil the journey.

When others were complaining, my father stood up.

The school bus restarted and everyone cheered.

6 . 89-year- old Mrs. Adams was always dressed in full black and hardly left her house. Almost everyone in the neighborhood was afraid of_________ her. But 6-year -old Tim found the old and_________ lady used to look outside through her living room curtains. He_________ she longed for a friend to be happy. He found a perfect solution to_________ Mrs Adams one day.

Tim was on his way home when he_________ a little stray cat (流浪猫). He brought her home, fed her milk, and built her a little bed out of his shoe box. Tim was_________ to name her Kitty after thinking about for a long time. He_________ her under the bed in his room because his mother would be_________ if she found out what he was going to do with the_________.

The next day, Tim took Kitty in the shoe box. He stopped outside Mrs. Adams’ house and knocked at the door. The elder lady took her own sweet time__________ the door. Tim smiled, and Mrs Adams noticed one of his front teeth was missing. She burst out laughing__________.

“See! I knew you were not scary!” Tim said. “You look beautiful when you__________,Granny!“

“Of course, I’m not__________， little man! But what’s your name?”Mrs. Adams asked.

“I’m Tim!” he said proudly and__________ Kitty’s shoe box to her.“This is my pet, Kitty.I know you’re alone. She will surely keep you__________.”

Mrs. Adams’ smile suddenly__________.She asked if he came to give the cat to her__________.Tim nodded.

“I am thankful to you, Tim,”the older lady expressed her__________. "Everyone is afraid of me, and nobody__________ to ask me how I was doing. ” Mrs. Adams opened her arms.

Tim stepped forward to give Mrs. Adams a__________.

I found that Minnie had been unhappy ever since her family moved away from Hartford, but I was never quite sure how to approach her about it.

From the time she was a child, she was abnormally quiet; she would rarely speak unless she was spoken to, and even then her response would be very little. Despite her soft-spoken nature. she showed a great interest in art-particularly painting. Whatever she lacked in words, she made up with the paintbrush, and so it was through her paintings that I first noticed something was wrong. When she painted an animal, it would be the pigeons(鸽子)flying in Hanford Park; or, when she painted a person, it would be the partner she played badminton with at the Hartford playground. Whether intentionally or not, he sowed in her paintings what she hesitated to put into words.

Being her elder cousin, I was eager to make her move to the big city as smooth as possible. Hartford was a small country town.so Minnie had grown up alongside familiar faces who were used to her timidity(羞怯). But in the city everyone was a stranger, which made it a challenge for her to communicate with others.

This problem was more obvious with her changing schools. What’s more, she was under some pressure to improve her grades. Although she was a good student, her mother was very demanding of her. She always wanted Minnie to seize all the opportunities to be the best, but it was really difficult for Minnie.

On Fridays when my high school finishes early, I usually head over to the middle school to walk Minnie home. It being such a Friday, I approached the school gate expecting to find her waiting for me as usual, but she wasn’t there.

The guard said he had seen Minnie leave alone already.

There she was,sitting helplessly in the waiting area of the train station.