If they keep the examples, they probably ought to format them with choices, like making it clear that the +2 and +1 can go anywhere, say to just pick a language, etc.
It's amazing that they have to spell this stuff out, but yeah, based on confusion here they'll have to look like this:
GUARD (or some other similar posting of your choice)
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom (or two other abilities of your choice)
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Perception (or two other skills of your choice)
Tool Proficiency: Gaming Set* (one of your choice or another tool of your choice)
Language: Dwarvish (or another language of your choice)
Feat: Alert (or another level 1 feat of your choice)
Your feet begin to ache when you remember the countless hours you spent at your post in the tower (or another location of your choice). You were trained to keep one eye outside the wall (or another place of your choice), watching for marauders (or another enemy of your choice) sweeping from the nearby forest (or another terrain of your choice), and your other eye inside the wall, searching for cutpurses and troublemakers (or other individuals of your choice). At the end of each shift, you bunked in the mayor’s barracks (or another location of your choice) alongside your fellow sentries and the dwarven smiths (or other companions of your choice) who kept your armor snug and your weapons sharp. (Or an entirely different paragraph of fluff of your choice).
Equipment
Crossbow Bolt (20); Gaming Set (same as above); Hooded Lantern; Light Crossbow; Manacles; Quiver; Spear; Traveler’s Clothes; 12 GP (or other equipment of equal or lesser value of your choice).
But should it really be necessary to do that for EACH sample background when you've already explicitly said it at the beginning of the background section? Seems like it might be.