1 . Have you ever been in a bathroom, dressing room or another private area with a mirror and had that feeling that someone is watching you? You can check to see if a mirror is transparent by observing how it is installed and using a few simple techniques to determine if there’s a wall behind it.     1    

Check out the lighting. For a two-way mirror to be effective, the light on the mirrored side needs to be 10 times brighter than the light on the other side. If the lighting is dimmer, it’s possible to see through the glass to the observation area. Look around and determine whether the lighting seems extraordinarily bright.     2    

    3    Press your face up to the mirror and cup your hands around it, creating a dark tunnel to block out as much light as possible. When you do this, if the light in the observation room is at all brighter than the light on your side of the mirror, you should be able to see something through the glass.

Sound it out. The sound of tapping a two-way mirror has also been described as bright or sharp as opposed to a thud (砰的一声) from an everyday mirror. Tap on the surface of the mirror with your knuckle (指节).     4    An observation mirror will produce an open, hollow and echoing sound because there is an open space on the other side.

    5    Then hold a flashlight to the mirror (it can be the “flashlight” on your smartphone). If it is a two-way mirror, the room on the other side will be illuminated and you’ll be able to see it.

2 . The early bird catches the worm, right?

There was a time in my life when it seemed I couldn’t advance at work. I had this coworker who was always one step ahead of me.     1     But for some reason, my normally strict boss seemed to love him.

Then one morning I headed into work half an hour early so I could also leave early to catch my flight for a weekend vacation. When I got there, my coworker and boss were chatting over coffee. I joined in and realized they had been having these morning chats for months!

    2     By missing out on these small morning coffee chats, I was missing out on building an important connection for my career. So it’s important that we look at how the time that we arrive at our events is affecting our lives.

Often, we rank things based on how we understand the importance of our punctuality for that event. How early would you show up to something like a doctor’s appointment? Do you get there right on time, or 15 or more minutes earlier?

Think about your job. If it’s more casual and relaxed, do you always show up on time?     3     Did you ever find yourself getting in trouble at work for being late?

Now think about personal events. If you went to a friend’s birthday party or their dinner, would you show up on time? Consider how you show up for even more casual hangouts, like, checking in with your parents.

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When we show up early, we give ourselves the chance to reduce stress about missing out or making anybody else upset.     5    

3 . Natural disasters may claim thousands of lives or destroy millions of homes. What can we learn from disasters?

Sometimes, there are no real answers. Everyone has lost something and someone, and they keep on asking what they have done to deserve this cruel fate. It’s okay to hold on to these questions, but no matter how hard and painful it is, you should keep moving, breathing and living.     1    

Even strangers can teach you kindness. There may be millions of selfish people in the world.     2     There is still kindness out there, waiting to be discovered. You will find it everywhere, at the most unexpected places—even among the wastelands left by the disaster.

Family is everything. Sometimes we forget to love our family, just because we’re too busy with our own lives.     3     We will not realize their value until we arrive at an empty house, an abandoned and forgotten place that you once called “home”.

    4     Sure, reality can be harsh and unforgiving but it doesn’t mean that we should blame ourselves and feel like a victim forever. We have to strive and thrive; we have to fight and do whatever it takes to resist and rise up. Not everyone will have a happy ending or an interesting plot, but we can always decide how to write the ending.

Every day of your life should be spent loving and living. Don’t be angry at the world for letting you live an unbearable life of heartbreaks and frustrations.     5     So just love deep and love hard. Live as if it’s your only chance to find the happiness that you deserve.

4 . We all have memories of what our fathers enjoyed, and all the fun we had with him: travelling, reading, or exploring the neighborhood hiking trail. Each of us has treasured stories and memories of times with dad.    1    

The charm of storytelling,the fun of traveling, the immersion in a book...these are the gifts of a lifetime my father helped me unwrap.    2    All the stories he narrated to engage us and all the travels we took with him opened up a whole new world to me which was like a breath of fresh air in my life.

My father, turning 75 this year, is still a storyteller, but his exploration of the world has turned virtual. Like almost all children, I spent my twenties walking away from his stories since I was always “occupied with my work.”    3     August all expectations, I hear the unsaid health concerns and the frustration at no being able to do everything the way he used to. In contrast, I have travelled farther than he could take us, and read books much more than he ever had time outside his working hours.

    4    That lies in the things he points at and in the activities he helps us manage. He gifts us expediences of strength and courage that power us forward into the big wide world — a world he walks with us so as to better assure that we will be able to explore and navigate its nettles (荨麻) without being held back by our fears or worries.

Have you ever put your ear to a seashell and heard the waves whooshing in there? On the outside, it is a hard shell — pitted, untidily edged and boldly patterned.    5    They seem to have a tough shell, and you have to put them to your heart and listen for the waves of what they feel and whatever it is that they have left unsaid.

7 . When water is cold, people will find it uncomfortable to swim. Wetsuits(潜水服）can help keep people warm.    1    So wetsuits are important. In many water sports, you can find people wearing them.

The wetsuit doesn't have a long history. According to studies, the wetsuit only began during WWII when Italians started wearing wetsuits that were made of rubber. And it was widely believed in 1951, Hugh Bradner began working to improve the equipment.     2    

Now there are many kinds of wetsuits. Contrary to what some may think, wetsuits do not work by keeping the diver(潜水员）dry; they are designed to let water into the suit. This thin layer of water is trapped（保存）between the diver and the suit. And it's allowed to move between the skin of the diver and the inside layer.     3    And it can help keep the diver comfortable during the diving process. That's why it's important to have a nice, tight fit for a wetsuit.

    4    The shorter wetsuit often provides cover for the main part of people's bodies. This kind of wetsuit works well with boating, water skiing, swimming, etc. A longer wetsuit can completely cover the body, including long legs.With more protection for the body, it may be used in cool weather conditions.

Wetsuits can also differ in thickness. They range from about 0. 5mm to 8mm in thickness. It's true that thicker wetsuits are more likely to affect your movement.     5    Generally, the colder the water you plan to dive in, the thicker the wetsuit should be.

10 . Whether you’re in the final research stages of a major paper, or on a Zoom (a calling app) call for work, a dropped WiFi connection at zero hour is something annoying.     1     One of the most common reasons it happens is that too many devices are connected.

    2     Now, with smartphones, iPads, smart TVs and so much more, it doesn’t take long for WiFi to hop aboard the struggle bus. Actually, even if a connected device isn’t actively sending or receiving data, it will still consume some of the available bandwidth. It means that if you have many devices connected, you can start to see slowdowns or drops in your WiFi connection.     3    

The first and easiest fix is to disconnect unused devices from your WiFi. The easiest way to do this is to simply change your WiFi password, which will kick everyone off. Then, you can allow only certain devices to rejoin.     4     It is workable to stop gaming or downloading a movie.

    5     First, run a speed test to check your current speed. (Google “speed test” to see a list of websites where you can do this.) You may have too many devices connected for the internet speed you’re paying for. If this is the case, contact your internet provider about upgrading to a higher speed. But you may want to try some of our other fixes first before spending the money.