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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 complaint does Jing-Mei’s mother make about the young piano prodigy that she watches on The Ed Sullivan Show?
(a) Play wrong notes. Chords are all off
(b) Play note right, but doesn’t sound good! No singing sound
(c) Play not too good, but has character
(d) Play wrong notes and smiles without meaning to

2. What sensation does Jing-Mei describe as she begins hitting one wrong note after another during the talent show?
(a) I felt a wave of terror and then everything went black
(b) A shiver of excitement started in my hands and spread up my arms
(c) A chill started at the top of my head and began to trickle down
(d) A burning sensation in my heart and then an inability to breathe

3. Where does Jing-Mei live while growing up?
(a) San Francisco, California
(b) Oakland, California
(c) Sacramento, California
(d) Los Angeles, California

4. Jing-Mei describes her childhood ambitions in the beginning of the story by comparing herself to “Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with” what type of music “filling the air”?
(a) Black-and-white movie music
(b) Whispering music
(c) Sparkly cartoon music
(d) Old-timey piano music

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When Jing-Mei has a revelation while staring at herself in the bathroom mirror as a child, how does she describe the girl who is staring back at her?

2. Jing-Mei says that as a child “sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient.” What did Jing-Mei’s inner prodigy tell her at this time?

3. How do Jing-Mei and her parents travel home after the talent show?

4. What does Jing-Mei promise herself when she has the revelation while staring in the bathroom mirror as a child?

5. By what name does Jing-Mei refer to Mr. Chong’s mother as in the story?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Suyuan Woo’s ambitions in the beginning of the story set up the central conflict in “Two Kinds”?

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

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

4. How does Jing-Mei describe her relationship to the piano after her fallout with her mother after the talent show?

5. What do the Schumann songs at the end of the story represent symbolically?

6. How do the subjects and themes in Amy Tan’s works relate to those of other Asian American authors?

7. What does Jing-Mei overhear her mother saying about her to Auntie Lindo midway through the story?

8. What arrangement is made between Suyuan Woo and Mr. Chong in regards to Jing-Mei’s piano study and practice?

9. 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?

10. In what ways does Suyuan Woo lack in communication with her daughter in the beginning of the story?

(see the answer keys)

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