View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei describe the Schumann piece that she was to play at the talent show?
(a) It was a difficult, multi-layered piece that sounded less difficult than it was
(b) It was a strong and powerful piece, one that I loved
(c) It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was
(d) It was a textured piece that showed off skills that I didn’t even have

2. The Magnuson Act was passed in the year that China became what?
(a) An official ally to the Germans in World War II
(b) An official ally to the U.S. in the Korean War
(c) An official ally to the U.S. in World War II
(d) An official ally to the U.S. in World War I

3. When was the Chinese Exclusion Act signed into law?
(a) 1862
(b) 1948
(c) 1915
(d) 1882

4. The majority of the narrative of “Two Kind” is related in what tense?
(a) Past tense
(b) Future-possessive tense
(c) Future tense
(d) Present tense

5. Jing-Mei says of Mr. Chong when she began piano lessons that “he must have been younger than I thought, since he” what?
(a) Lived with his mother and was not yet married
(b) Had no children and was not yet married
(c) Had two young children and a young wife
(d) Had sisters that were my mother’s age

6. Edvard Grieg was a composer and pianist from what country?
(a) Norway
(b) Germany
(c) England
(d) France

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

8. 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 Förster upright
(b) A Steinway grand
(c) A Steinway upright
(d) A Wurlitzer spinet

9. What word from the story means to play music with a vibratory or quavering effect?
(a) Bass
(b) Trill
(c) Sonata
(d) Treble

10. 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) Cinderella
(b) Little Orphan Annie
(c) Peter Pan
(d) Guys and Dolls

11. What does Jing-Mei say she mostly did do while she was practicing her music for the talent show?
(a) Practiced her scales and chords
(b) Focused on the keys she was playing
(c) Listened to all the errors she made
(d) Daydreamed about being elsewhere

12. When was author Amy Tan born?
(a) 1940
(b) 1911
(c) 1952
(d) 1965

13. 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) Hymns
(b) Sonatas
(c) Soliloquies
(d) Waltzes

14. 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?
(a) Kapow
(b) Voila
(c) Alakazam
(d) Abracadabra

15. Describing her mother’s reaction to her hurtful words, Jing-Mei says, “she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like” what?
(a) A paper sack, dull and soiled
(b) A small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless
(c) A dandelion in the autumn sunset
(d) A wisp of hair, broken and abandoned

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Jing-Mei’s last name in the story?

2. In the 1993 film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club, what actress played the role of Jing-Mei?

3. “Two Kinds” is a short story that was initially published in what periodical in February 1989?

4. 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?

5. What musical term from the story refers to a group of notes taken in ascending or descending order within the compass of one octave?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 643 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample