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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. When Jing-Mei has a revelation while staring at herself in the bathroom mirror as a child, she says, “I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rather thoughts willed with lots of” what?
(a) Won’ts
(b) Hates
(c) Can’ts
(d) Don’ts

2. How does Jing-Mei say she felt when her time to perform her piano solo at the talent show came?
(a) I was scared, but hopeful
(b) I was worried
(c) I was very confident
(d) I was terrified

3. What musical term in the story refers to the sounding of notes in a chord in rapid succession instead of simultaneously?”
(a) Sonata
(b) Arpeggio
(c) Bass
(d) Trill

4. Of what ethnicity is the little girl on The Ed Sullivan Show that Jing-Mei and her mother watch playing piano?
(a) Eastern European
(b) Japanese
(c) Chinese
(d) African

5. Jing-Mei says in the end of the story that “unlike my mother, I did not believe I could” what?
(a) Be talented or worthy
(b) Be free
(c) Overcome my heritage
(d) Be anything I wanted to be

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei describe Mr. Chong’s eyes as always looking when she began piano lessons with him?

2. When was the Magnuson Act signed into law?

3. 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?

4. When her mother offered to give her the piano for her birthday, Jing-Mei says she saw this action as what?

5. When Jing-Mei’s mother enrolls her in piano lessons, Jing-Mei says, “I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t” what?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what ways can the reader see early in the story that Jing-Mei’s ambitions (and her mother’s) are misplaced?

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

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

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

5. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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