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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. When Jing-Mei’s mother enrolls her in piano lessons, Jing-Mei says, “I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t” what?
(a) Go on TV if you paid me a million dollars
(b) Take lessons from Mr. Chong
(c) Play for you
(d) Be able to play it well enough for your expectations

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

3. 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 crash of bricks against a tin rooftop
(b) A cat running up and down on top of garbage cans
(c) A chorus of birds singing in the treetops
(d) A solitary violin

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

5. How old is the little girl on The Ed Sullivan Show that Jing-Mei and her mother watch playing piano?
(a) 3
(b) 16
(c) 12
(d) 9

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei describe Mr. Chong’s eyes as always looking when she began piano lessons with him?

2. When does Jing-Mei say her mother came to America?

3. Jing-Mei soon learns after beginning her piano lessons with Mr. Chong that he is deaf. He compares himself to what composer, saying “We’re both listening only in our head”?

4. 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?

5. How old was Shirley Temple when she began her film career?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei describe her mother’s immigration to America in the opening of the story? What did she leave behind?

2. Why do you think the author chose to set the story (and the others in The Joy Luck Club) in San Francisco?

3. How does Jing-Mei describe Mr. Chong when she begins piano lessons with him? What does she secretly nickname him?

4. How does Jing-Mei describe the piece she is to play at the talent show? How does she describe her practice for the performance?

5. 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?

6. What child star does Suyuan Woo attempt to mold her daughter into? What happens with this attempt?

7. What cultural similarities can be seen between the author’s childhood and that of Jing-Mei in “Two Kinds”?

8. What innovations in literary style is Amy Tan known for?

9. What does Jing-Mei discover about Mr. Chong’s disabilities as she studies with him? How does this discovery influence her actions?

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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