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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 respond to her mother on the phone when her mother offers her the piano for her birthday and says, “You could been genius if you wanted to”?
(a) I love you
(b) Yes, I know
(c) No I couldn’t
(d) I wish I’d known then

2. What word from the story mean to find fault in, blame, or censure?
(a) Confiscate
(b) Tolerate
(c) Reproach
(d) Adulterate

3. What nickname does Jing-Mei say she secretly gave Mr. Chong when she began taking piano lessons with him?
(a) Wise Chong
(b) Wicked Chong
(c) Sage Chong
(d) Old Chong

4. Of her first lessons with Mr. Chong, Jing-Mei says, “I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord and then I just played some nonsense that sounded like” what?
(a) A solitary violin
(b) A chorus of birds singing in the treetops
(c) A cat running up and down on top of garbage cans
(d) A crash of bricks against a tin rooftop

5. Jing-Mei describes her childhood ambitions in the beginning of the story by comparing herself to “Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with” what type of music “filling the air”?
(a) Old-timey piano music
(b) Black-and-white movie music
(c) Sparkly cartoon music
(d) Whispering music

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Jing-Mei’s mother do to earn money for the family when Jing-Mei is a child?

2. The majority of the narrative of “Two Kinds” is related from what perspective?

3. What refers to circular toys that are twirled around the waist, and that some of the children used at the talent show when Jing-Mei made her piano debut?

4. What “magic word” as in conjuring does Jing-Mei use to describe the effect of her having said hurtful things to her mother during their fight about piano practice?

5. How old does Jing-Mei say she was when her mother told her “Of course you can be prodigy too” in the beginning of the story?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Jing-Mei describe doing every night with her mother at the kitchen table as a child in the beginning of the story?

2. What discovery does Jing-Mei make regarding the song she played at the talent show in the end of the story?

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

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

5. How does Jing-Mei’s mother look after her performance at the talent show? What does Jing-Mei think as she watches the following performances?

6. How does Jing-Mei describe her relationship to the piano after her fallout with her mother after the talent show?

7. Who attends the talent show when Jing-Mei performs? How does Jing-Mei take the stage?

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

9. How does Jing-Mei say her perceptions differed from her mother’s in regard to ambition as she looks back at the end of the story?

10. What performer fascinates Suyuan Woo while watching the Ed Sullivan Show early in the story? How does Jing-Mei respond?

(see the answer keys)

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