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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. What does Jing-Mei say she put her mother’s jewelry in after her death at the end of the story?
(a) A box made of tin
(b) A bank vault
(c) Special silk pouches
(d) A post office box

2. After Jing-Mei’s performance at the talent show, she says, “We could have escaped during intermission.” What does she say “must have anchored my parents to their chairs”?
(a) A desire to not be shown up by their neighbors
(b) A love for music
(c) Pride and some strange sense of honor
(d) A need to punish me further

3. When Jing-Mei and her mother get into an argument about Jing-Mei beginning piano lessons, Jing-Mei’s mother exclaims, “If she had as much talent as she has temper, she would be” what?
(a) A better daughter
(b) Rich now
(c) Famous now
(d) Easier to deal with

4. What complaint does Jing-Mei’s mother make about the young piano prodigy that she watches on The Ed Sullivan Show?
(a) Play not too good, but has character
(b) Play note right, but doesn’t sound good! No singing sound
(c) Play wrong notes and smiles without meaning to
(d) Play wrong notes. Chords are all off

5. What does Jing-Mei kick under her feet as her mother drags her to the piano for practice after the talent show?
(a) Throw rugs
(b) The bedspread
(c) The cat
(d) The piano bench

Short Answer Questions

1. “Two Kinds” is a short story from Amy Tan’s book The Joy Luck Club. This collection of short stories revolves around the lives of Chinese immigrant women who form a club and play what game?

2. Jing-Mei says in the end of the story that she had never asked her mother about her hope, “And that even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most”. What is the question that so frightened Jing-Mei?

3. How long ago does Jing-Mei say she sent a tuner to her parents’ apartment to recondition the piano at the end of the story?

4. How does Jing-Mei describe the secondhand piano that her parents bought for her?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. What “transformation” does Jing-Mei undergo while looking into the mirror as a child?

2. How and when did the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act influence immigration in the U.S.?

3. How does the narrative style in “Two Kinds” shift throughout the story? Why does it shift?

4. How does Jing-Mei describe her life as she passed from childhood to adulthood? In what ways does she say she disappointed her mother?

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

6. How does Jing-Mei feel as she prepares to perform at the talent show?

7. What happens when Suyuan Woo quizzes her daughter on country capitals? What other activities does she test out on Jing-Mei when she is young?

8. How does the central conflict of the story begin to manifest in Jing-Mei’s mind following her revelation in the mirror?

9. What does Jing-Mei say in defense of the performer on the Ed Sullivan Show when she is criticized by her mother? How does this defense backfire?

10. How does Jing-Mei respond to her mother’s news that she will be taking piano lessons?

(see the answer keys)

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