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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Jing-Mei describes Mr. Chong’s mother as having a particular smell about her of what?
(a) Freshly mowed grass and spring
(b) A baby that had done something in its pants
(c) Baked apple pies and the smell of autumn
(d) Fresh flowers and stale perfume

2. 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) Sad
(b) Proud
(c) Angry
(d) Ashamed

3. Jing-Mei says that soon after her mother got the idea for her to be a Chinese Shirley Temple, she took her to a beauty school in what district?
(a) The Mission district
(b) Potrero Hill
(c) SoHo
(d) Noe Valley

4. What musical term, taught by Mr. Chong to Jing-Mei in their lessons, means pertaining to the highest part in harmonized music?
(a) Bass
(b) Treble
(c) Sonata
(d) Scale

5. Jing-Mei says in the beginning of “Two Kinds,” “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open” what?
(a) A hair salon
(b) A factory
(c) A clothing store
(d) A restaurant

6. What is the name of Jing-Mei’s mother in “Two Kinds”?
(a) An-Mei Hsu
(b) Suyuan Woo
(c) Lindo Jong
(d) Wu-Tsing Hsu

7. 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?
(a) Why she had believed in me
(b) Why she had left her children behind
(c) Why she wanted to hurt me
(d) Why she had given up hope

8. What color dress does Jing-Mei wear for her piano debut at the talent show?
(a) White
(b) Blue
(c) Red
(d) Yellow

9. At the talent show where Jing-Mei makes her piano debut, she describes an eleven-year-old boy who won first prize for what performance?
(a) A piano solo
(b) A mime act
(c) A violin solo
(d) A comedic monologue

10. What college does Jing-Mei say she didn’t get into, causing more disappointment for her mother?
(a) Yale
(b) Oxford
(c) Emerson
(d) Stanford

11. How does Jing-Mei describe the Schumann piece that she was to play at the talent show?
(a) It was a strong and powerful piece, one that I loved
(b) It was a difficult, multi-layered piece that sounded less difficult than it was
(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

12. 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?
(a) 3
(b) 7
(c) 9
(d) 5

13. Of her childhood and the ambitions that Jing-Mei and her mother felt for her at this time, she says in the beginning of the story, “In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become” what?
(a) Perfect
(b) Free
(c) Worthwhile
(d) Beautiful

14. What musical term from the story means pertaining to the lowest part in harmonic music?
(a) Scale
(b) Bass
(c) Sonata
(d) Treble

15. 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?
(a) Little slits up the sides
(b) Gathers in the sleeves
(c) Golden silk thread
(d) Hand-sewn little pockets

Short Answer Questions

1. Examine the following sentence from the narrative: “I kept thinking my fingers would adjust themselves back, like a train switching to the right track.” What literary device is used in this example?

2. How does Jing-Mei described her family’s kitchen table where she would sit after dinner with her mother during her childhood?

3. What word from the story means coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited?

4. What does Jing-Mei’s mother tell her she looks like after she’s been given a bad perm at the beauty school?

5. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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