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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. Jing-Mei says in the end of the story that she had never asked her mother about her hope, “And that even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most”. What is the question that so frightened Jing-Mei?
(a) Why she wanted to hurt me
(b) Why she had believed in me
(c) Why she had left her children behind
(d) Why she had given up hope

2. How does Jing-Mei say she felt every time she saw the piano in her parents’ living room at the end of the story?
(a) Ashamed
(b) Sad
(c) Angry
(d) Proud

3. What does Mr. Chong live in relation to Jing-Mei’s family when she’s growing up?
(a) On the first floor of the apartment building
(b) Next door to Jing-Mei’s apartment on the second floor
(c) On the top floor of the apartment building
(d) In the basement of the apartment building

4. What U.S. President signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law?
(a) James McCarthy
(b) Teddy Roosevelt
(c) Franklin D. Roosevelt
(d) Chester A. Arthur

5. What does Jing-Mei say Mr. Chong would balance on her wrists as she practiced piano so that she would keep them still?
(a) Dimes
(b) Pennies
(c) Quarters
(d) Apples

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Jing-Mei say her academic career ended in “Two Kinds”?

2. Who founded the Ripley’s Believe It or Not franchise?

3. One of the tests that Jing-Mei’s mother gave her as she attempted to lure out the prodigy in her daughter was predicting the daily temperatures in what three cities?

4. How many days have passed since Jing-Mei and her mother watched The Ed Sullivan Show when Jing-Mei’s mother tells her that she will be taking piano lessons?

5. What musical term from the story refers to a group of notes taken in ascending or descending order within the compass of one octave?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Jing-Mei find when she takes her bow after her performance at the talent show?

4. How do Jing-Mei’s feelings about her mother’s ambitions begin to change early in the story? What causes her feelings to change?

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

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

7. Who attends the talent show when Jing-Mei performs? How does Jing-Mei take the stage?

8. What does Jing-Mei overhear her mother saying about her to Auntie Lindo midway through the story?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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