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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei describe her mother’s first children in the beginning of the story?
(a) Twin baby girls
(b) Three sons
(c) A boy and a girl
(d) Twin baby boys

2. When the instructor of the beauty school has to cut off Jing-Mei’s hair because of the bad perm, she tells Jing-Mei’s mother that what play is very popular these days?
(a) Guys and Dolls
(b) Little Orphan Annie
(c) Peter Pan
(d) Cinderella

3. What word does Jing-Mei use in describing Mr. Chong’s silent instrumental compositions with a vague and dreamy character?
(a) Reverie
(b) Trill
(c) Arpeggio
(d) Staccato

4. How many mothers comprise the Joy Luck Club in the story?
(a) 7
(b) 5
(c) 6
(d) 4

5. When Jing-Mei’s mother still lived in China, her husband was serving as an officer where?
(a) Chongqing
(b) Guangzhou
(c) Shanghai
(d) Beijing

Short Answer Questions

1. What U.S. President signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law?

2. When was author Amy Tan born?

3. When Jing-Mei’s mother enrolls her in piano lessons, Jing-Mei says, “I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t” what?

4. What word from the story means to play music with a vibratory or quavering effect?

5. For how long does Jing-Mei say she practiced piano with Mr. Chong before she overheard her mother and Auntie Lindo bragging about their children?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the concept of identity relate centrally to the conflicts in “Two Kinds”?

2. How did critics receive The Joy Luck Club and “Two Kinds” upon publication?

3. How does Jing-Mei’s mother respond when Jing-Mei refuses to practice piano after the talent show?

4. How does Jing-Mei describe her performance at the talent show?

5. How does the conflict that marks the climax of the story begin? How much time has passed since Jing-Mei’s performance at the talent show?

6. How does Jing-Mei describe Waverly Jong in the narrative? What has Waverly gained recognition through?

7. What cultural similarities can be seen between the author’s childhood and that of Jing-Mei in “Two Kinds”?

8. What comment does Waverly Jong make to Jing-Mei after her performance at the talent show? How does this make Jing-Mei feel?

9. In what ways can the reader see early in the story that Jing-Mei’s ambitions (and her mother’s) are misplaced?

10. What offer does Jing-Mei’s mother make her approaching Jing-Mei’s thirtieth birthday?

(see the answer keys)

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