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

2. Who performs first at the talent show where Jing-Mei makes her piano debut?
(a) The adults
(b) The oldest children
(c) The trombone players
(d) The youngest children

3. When was Shirley Temple born?
(a) 1959
(b) 1911
(c) 1928
(d) 1937

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

5. When did the Japanese invasion of China take place, leading Jing-Mei’s mother to flee China?
(a) 1943
(b) 1929
(c) 1937
(d) 1911

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of Auntie Lindo’s daughter in the story?

2. Describing her mother’s reaction to her hurtful words, Jing-Mei says, “she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like” what?

3. What illness did Jing-Mei’s mother contract while trying to flee China?

4. Jing-Mei describes the girl playing piano on The Ed Sullivan Show as taking a fancy sweep of a curtsy so that the fluffy skirt of her “dress cascaded slowly to the floor like the petals of” what?

5. What refers to circular toys that are twirled around the waist, and that some of the children used at the talent show when Jing-Mei made her piano debut?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei respond to her mother’s news that she will be taking piano lessons?

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

3. How does Suyuan Woo go about discovering her daughter’s “genius” in the beginning of the story?

4. What “transformation” does Jing-Mei undergo while looking into the mirror as a child?

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

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

7. How does Jing-Mei respond to her mother’s comment about her to Auntie Lindo? What foreshadowing follows this scene?

8. What does Jing-Mei overhear her mother and Auntie Lindo talking about after she’s studied piano for a year?

9. Why does Amy Tan employ the techniques of oral tradition in “Two Kinds”?

10. How does Jing-Mei describe the process of playing scales for Mr. Chong?

(see the answer keys)

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