The teacher stood before his class and was going to hand out the final exam papers. “I know how ______ you have all worked to prepare for this test,” he said. “And because I know you can do it well, I am willing to offer a B to anyone who would ______ not to take the test.

Many students jumped up to ______ the teacher and left the classroom. The teacher looked at the______ students and said, “Does anyone else want to get a B? This is your last ______.” Two more students decided to go.

Seven students remained. The teacher then handed out the ______. There were only three sentences typed on the paper: Congratulations! You have just ______ an A in this class. Keep believing in yourself.

I never had a teacher like that, but I think it is a test ______ any teacher could and should give. Students who are not ______ in what they have learned are B students at best.

The same is ______ in real life. The A students are those who believe in what they are doing because they have ______ both successes and failures. They have learned life’s lessons, either from normal education ______ from events in their lives, and have become ______ people.

Scientists say that by the age of eight, 80% of what we believe about ourselves has already been formed. You are a big kid now, and you ______ that you have some limits. However, there is ______ you can’t do or learn or be. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to reach the top of Mount Everest said, “It’s not the mountain we conquer(克服) but ourselves.”

A year ago, my husband and I were sitting on the beach watching our one-year-old son play in the water, talking about the money we were ________ for his future, something we had started doing since he was born.

Money played a ________ role in both my and my husband’s college decisions-I did my first two years at a community college to save money and my husband’s college fund (资金) got spent on keeping the family ________. The idea that there would be no limitations (限制) for our own kid felt ________.

As our son ________ his hands in the sand, my husband and I threw out ________ of what he might do with the money. “Maybe he’ll be lucky to graduate debt (债务) ________,” my husband laughed. “Or if he gets a full scholarship (奖学金), he could spend the money on an apartment.” “Or he’ll climb Everest or travel around the world”, I ________.

A couple weeks after we drove back to our home, wildfires spread through my hometown in a record-breaking ________. They led to increasingly serious weather ________, including droughts (旱灾) and ice storms. When my son will be college-aged, he will likely care more about air quality and ________ the heat than spring break travel plans.

That night, I asked my husband a question: What if we ________ putting money in our son’s college fund and started using that money to protect him from weather change? But how do you do that? What will he need in 2040 or 2060? After some ________, we had reached an agreement. Saving money for his college education when we’re facing a weather problem just doesn’t ________. Instead, we are planning on using the money to ________ a carbon-free lifestyle now by buying electric cars and starting a backyard vegetable garden.