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

2. How does Jing-Mei describe her family’s television at the time when her mother watched The Ed Sullivan Show?
(a) The TV was brand new but the picture was still blurry
(b) The TV was new and the picture was clear
(c) The TV was old and the sound kept shorting out
(d) The TV was a black and white model but had a good picture

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

4. When Jing-Mei and her mother get into an argument about Jing-Mei beginning piano lessons, Jing-Mei’s mother exclaims, “If she had as much talent as she has temper, she would be” what?
(a) A better daughter
(b) Famous now
(c) Easier to deal with
(d) Rich now

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Jing-Mei says that her mother offered to give her the piano for her birthday when she turned how old?

2. When was Edvard Grieg born?

3. What literary term refers to a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object?

4. What complaint does Jing-Mei’s mother make about the young piano prodigy that she watches on The Ed Sullivan Show?

5. How many hours a day does Jing-Mei have access to the piano at Mr. Chong’s for practice when she first begins taking lessons?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Jing-Mei feel as she prepares to perform at the talent show?

3. What does Jing-Mei say to her mother to hurt her during their conflict in the climax of the story? How does Suyuan respond?

4. How does Jing-Mei describe her life as she passed from childhood to adulthood? In what ways does she say she disappointed her mother?

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

6. How does Jing-Mei’s mother respond when Jing-Mei refuses to practice piano after the talent show?

7. How does the conflict that marks the climax of the story begin? How much time has passed since Jing-Mei’s performance at the talent show?

8. How does the narrative style in “Two Kinds” shift throughout the story? Why does it shift?

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

10. How does Jing-Mei describe her performance at the talent show?

(see the answer keys)

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