View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What word does Jing-Mei use in describing Mr. Chong’s silent instrumental compositions with a vague and dreamy character?
(a) Arpeggio
(b) Staccato
(c) Trill
(d) Reverie

2. What word from the story means coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited?
(a) Impertinent
(b) Depreciatory
(c) Nonchalant
(d) Fanatical

3. The majority of the narrative of “Two Kind” is related in what tense?
(a) Present tense
(b) Future tense
(c) Future-possessive tense
(d) Past tense

4. The Magnuson Act was passed in the year that China became what?
(a) An official ally to the U.S. in World War II
(b) An official ally to the U.S. in World War I
(c) An official ally to the U.S. in the Korean War
(d) An official ally to the Germans in World War II

5. Of Auntie Lindo’s daughter, Jing-Mei says “We had grown up together and shared all the closeness of two sisters squabbling over crayons and dolls. In other words, for the most part, we” what?
(a) Hated each other
(b) Pestered each other
(c) Loved each other
(d) Envied each other

Short Answer Questions

1. What word does Jing-Mei use to describe Auntie Lindo’s daughter in the narrative?

2. While watching the young piano prodigy on The Ed Sullivan Show with her mother, Jing-Mei says, “In spite of these warning signs, I wasn’t worried.” Why was Jing-Mei not concerned?

3. In the 1993 film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club, what actress played the role of Jing-Mei?

4. For how long does Jing-Mei say she practiced piano with Mr. Chong before she overheard her mother and Auntie Lindo bragging about their children?

5. How does Jing-Mei described her family’s kitchen table where she would sit after dinner with her mother during her childhood?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Suyuan Woo develop and maintain her sense of identity in the story?

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

3. Describe the narrative style of the story. Who is the narrator and how is her perspective defined?

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

5. How does Jing-Mei describe Mr. Chong’s history in music? How does she describe her first lessons?

6. What does Jing-Mei describe doing every night with her mother at the kitchen table as a child in the beginning of the story?

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

8. How does Jing-Mei respond to her mother’s offer on her thirtieth birthday?

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. How does Jing-Mei feel about her mother’s ambitions for her at first when she is a child?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 907 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample