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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 does Jing-Mei’s mother trade with Mr. Chong so that Jing-Mei may take piano lessons from him?
(a) Home-cooked meals
(b) Medical advice
(c) Housecleaning services
(d) Dog-walking services

2. Jing-Mei says of Mr. Chong when she began piano lessons that “he must have been younger than I thought, since he” what?
(a) Had no children and was not yet married
(b) Had sisters that were my mother’s age
(c) Lived with his mother and was not yet married
(d) Had two young children and a young wife

3. What illness did Jing-Mei’s mother contract while trying to flee China?
(a) Pneumonia
(b) Malaria
(c) Gangrene
(d) Dysentery

4. During what years did The Ed Sullivan Show air on television?
(a) 1960-1970
(b) 1941-1960
(c) 1948-1971
(d) 1929-1949

5. What does Jing-Mei’s mother tell her she looks like after she’s been given a bad perm at the beauty school?
(a) Negro Chinese
(b) Raggedy Anne
(c) A Cupie Doll
(d) An orphan

Short Answer Questions

1. Jing-Mei says in the end of the story that “unlike my mother, I did not believe I could” what?

2. When Jing-Mei refuses to practice piano after the talent show, she tells her mother, “Why should I? I’m not” what?

3. What is Jing-Mei doing on the day when her mother insists she go practice at the piano after the talent show fiasco?

4. “Two Kinds” is a short story that was initially published in what periodical in February 1989?

5. Jing-Mei describes sitting down nightly with her mother to examine stories of child prodigies when she was a child. The first of these stories is about a boy who knows all the state capitals and most of the European countries at what age?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. When does Jing-Mei’s mother first introduce to her the concept of a child prodigy?

4. How did critics receive The Joy Luck Club and “Two Kinds” upon publication?

5. How does Jing-Mei describe the piano at her parents’ house when she returns following her mother’s death?

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

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

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

9. What theme connects “Two Kinds” to the other stories in The Joy Luck Club?

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

(see the answer keys)

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