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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the only person applauding when Jing-Mei looks up from her curtsy at the talent show?
(a) Jing-Mei’s father
(b) Auntie Lindo
(c) Jing-Mei’s mother
(d) Mr. Chong

2. What word does Jing-Mei use to describe Auntie Lindo’s daughter in the narrative?
(a) Voluptuous
(b) Humble
(c) Snotty
(d) Gracious

3. When was Shirley Temple born?
(a) 1959
(b) 1911
(c) 1937
(d) 1928

4. How does Jing-Mei describe her school achievements in “Two Kinds”?
(a) I skipped two grades
(b) I didn’t get straight A’s
(c) I flunked every class twice
(d) I got straight A’s

5. Jing-Mei says to her mother as they argue over piano practice after the talent show, “I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!” Her mother responds, “Only two kinds of daughters.” What are these two kinds?
(a) Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind
(b) Those who carry their name with pride and those who don’t
(c) Those who are respectful and those who are ungrateful
(d) Those who marry young and those who are old widows

6. Why does Jing-Mei say she sent a tuner to recondition the piano at her parents’ house?
(a) Because I wanted to sell it
(b) For purely sentimental reasons
(c) Because I wanted to have it appraised
(d) Because I planned to play it again

7. Which of the following is a major theme throughout “Two Kinds”?
(a) Political corruption
(b) Mother-daughter relationships
(c) Sister-brother rivalry
(d) Father-daughter relationships

8. When Jing-Mei’s mother asks her for the capital of Finland, Jing-Mei responds with the capital of what country in the beginning of the story?
(a) France
(b) Australia
(c) Kenya
(d) Great Britain

9. What color does Jing-Mei say her mother knitted sweaters in, which were also “all the colors I hated”?
(a) Red, white, and black
(b) Blue, red, and silver
(c) Green, blue, and yellow
(d) Yellow, pink, and orange

10. As Jing-Mei sits down to begin her piano solo at the talent show, she envisions whom rushing up to introduce her to everyone on TV?
(a) James Dean
(b) Ed Sullivan
(c) Bob Newhart
(d) Johnny Carson

11. 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”?
(a) Despair
(b) Sadness
(c) Failure
(d) Revenge

12. How does Jing-Mei say she felt every time she saw the piano in her parents’ living room at the end of the story?
(a) Proud
(b) Angry
(c) Sad
(d) Ashamed

13. By the time that Jing-Mei is preparing to play in the talent recital, her parents have bought her what kind of secondhand piano?
(a) A Wurlitzer spinet
(b) A Steinway grand
(c) A Förster upright
(d) A Steinway upright

14. What musical term from the story refers to a group of notes taken in ascending or descending order within the compass of one octave?
(a) Scale
(b) Bass
(c) Treble
(d) Sonata

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When Jing-Mei was helping her father get things in order after Jing-Mei’s mother died, she says she found “some old Chinese silk dresses, the kind with” what?

2. Jing-Mei describes the fingers of Mr. Chong’s mother as feeling like what?

3. What nickname does Jing-Mei say she secretly gave Mr. Chong when she began taking piano lessons with him?

4. From what opera does Jing-Mei describe the “breasted girl with white makeup” singing from at the talent show?

5. Edvard Grieg is considered one of the leading composers of what era?

(see the answer keys)

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