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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 composition does the piano prodigy play by Edvard Grieg on The Ed Sullivan Show as Jing-Mei and her mother watch?
(a) Anita’s Dance
(b) Pleading Child
(c) Perfectly Contended
(d) Simon’s Waltz

2. How many days after the talent show is it when Jing-Mei is surprised that her mother insists she practice piano?
(a) 2
(b) 5
(c) 3
(d) 4

3. “Two Kinds” is a short story from Amy Tan’s book The Joy Luck Club. This collection of short stories revolves around the lives of Chinese immigrant women who form a club and play what game?
(a) Chinese checkers
(b) Chess
(c) Mah-jongg
(d) Bridge

4. What is Jing-Mei doing on the day when her mother insists she go practice at the piano after the talent show fiasco?
(a) Listening to the radio
(b) Writing in her journal
(c) Watching TV
(d) Calling a friend

5. Of Auntie Lindo, Jing-Mei’s mother says in the beginning of the story, “Her daughter, she is only best” what?
(a) Tricky
(b) At trying
(c) Student
(d) Chess champion

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Jing-Mei describe the piano as standing in her parents’ living room at the end of the story?

2. Why does Jing-Mei say she sent a tuner to recondition the piano at her parents’ house?

3. After Jing-Mei’s performance at the talent show, she says, “We could have escaped during intermission.” What does she say “must have anchored my parents to their chairs”?

4. When was Edvard Grieg born?

5. What is the neighborhood called where Jing-Mei’s family lives when she’s a child?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does the concept of identity relate centrally to the conflicts in “Two Kinds”?

4. What does Jing-Mei find when she takes her bow after her performance at the talent show?

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 feel about her mother’s ambitions for her at first when she is a child?

7. How are the pressures of immigrant families depicted through the character of Suyuan Woo in “Two Kinds”?

8. What comment does Waverly Jong make to Jing-Mei after her performance at the talent show? How does this make Jing-Mei feel?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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