A group of boys gathered around a tree. “______ tall tree!” they said to each other. “It would be exciting to climb to the top!”

The group of boys then decided to play a game to see ______ could climb to the top of the tree first. Their mothers were sitting not far away, looking on at their children as they played.

One of the climbers was an 8-year-old boy ______ David. He was the shortest child in the group. ______ thought he would win the competition.

Then the game started. All of the boys tried their best to climb as ______ as they could. ______ they all made it halfway up the tree before David did, he reached the top of the tree fastest in the end.

His mother was proud to see this. She asked him, “David, how did you manage ______ the top of the tree so quickly?”

“It was easy,” David said. “The other children kept ______ as they climbed. When they realized how high they were, they got ______ and were afraid of falling down. I, however, looked only up. When I saw how close I was, I kept going higher and higher until I reached the top.”

It is true in life that if we just keep going forward ______ looking back, we were more likely to reach our goals.