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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many hours a day does Jing-Mei have access to the piano at Mr. Chong’s for practice when she first begins taking lessons?
(a) 2
(b) 4
(c) 1
(d) 3

2. Of her lack of ambitions in music, Jing-Mei says “I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant” what?
(a) Sonatas
(b) Soliloquies
(c) Hymns
(d) Waltzes

3. What is symbolized by the second song that Jing-Mei finds in her piano workbook at the end of the story?
(a) The inner anguish she suffered as a child
(b) Her mother’s ambitions for her
(c) The love she had for her father
(d) The inner peace she’s found in her life

4. How many sons does Auntie Lindo have in the story?
(a) 2
(b) 1
(c) 3
(d) 4

5. At what time does Jing-Mei’s mother insist that Jing-Mei begin her piano practice following the talent show fiasco?
(a) 3
(b) 4
(c) 6
(d) 7

6. How does Jing-Mei describe Auntie Lindo’s smile when she looks out at the audience before beginning her piano solo at the talent show?
(a) Slivery
(b) Terse and comical
(c) Broad and happy
(d) Stiff-lipped

7. What sensation does Jing-Mei describe as she begins hitting one wrong note after another during the talent show?
(a) A burning sensation in my heart and then an inability to breathe
(b) A chill started at the top of my head and began to trickle down
(c) I felt a wave of terror and then everything went black
(d) A shiver of excitement started in my hands and spread up my arms

8. Of the composition that the piano prodigy plays on The Ed Sullivan Show, Jing-Mei says, “I remember the song, because later on” what?
(a) I heard it again on the radio
(b) I had that song played at my wedding
(c) It was the song played at my mother’s funeral
(d) I had to learn how to play it

9. Where did Jing-Mei’s mother abandon her first children, hoping for them to become adopted?
(a) In a church cemetery
(b) On church steps
(c) In a ditch outside of town
(d) Under a barren tree

10. How does Jing-Mei describe her family’s television at the time when her mother watched The Ed Sullivan Show?
(a) The TV was a black and white model but had a good picture
(b) The TV was old and the sound kept shorting out
(c) The TV was brand new but the picture was still blurry
(d) The TV was new and the picture was clear

11. After Jing-Mei’s hair debacle where it was cut off like a boy’s, what statement does she make about her feelings of the haircut?
(a) I thought the haircut made me look like a villain from a Disney movie
(b) I hated the haircut and it made me feel like I would never live up to my mother’s expectations
(c) I liked the haircut and felt like I would now no longer be bullied in school
(d) I liked the haircut and it made me actually look forward to my future fame

12. When her mother offered to give her the piano for her birthday, Jing-Mei says she saw this action as what?
(a) A sign of apology
(b) A sign of hope
(c) A sign of repentance
(d) A sign of forgiveness

13. What answer does Jing-Mei give when her mother asks her early in the story, “What’s the capital of Finland?”
(a) Omaha
(b) Lexington
(c) Nairobi
(d) Rockland

14. What does Mr. Chong live in relation to Jing-Mei’s family when she’s growing up?
(a) On the first floor of the apartment building
(b) On the top floor of the apartment building
(c) In the basement of the apartment building
(d) Next door to Jing-Mei’s apartment on the second floor

15. How old is the boy at the talent show that is described as wearing a fake moustache and doing a magic show?
(a) 16
(b) 10
(c) 12
(d) 18

Short Answer Questions

1. Jing-Mei says in the end of the story of her mother that she had “never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that” what “was inevitable”?

2. What word from the story means coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited?

3. Of her mother’s ambitions and her own as a child, Jing-Mei says, “I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with” what?

4. What is the name of Jing-Mei’s mother in “Two Kinds”?

5. Where did author Amy Tan grow up?

(see the answer keys)

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