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. “Two Kinds” is a short story that was initially published in what periodical in February 1989?
(a) The Atlantic
(b) The New Yorker
(c) The San Franciscan
(d) Reader’s Digest

2. What is the name of the song that Jing-Mei finds next to the Schumann piece she played for the talent show at the end of the story?
(a) Perfectly Contented
(b) Anita’s Dance
(c) Pleading Child
(d) Peter’s Waltz

3. Where does Jing-Mei find her exercise notes and secondhand music books at the end of the story?
(a) In the piano bench
(b) Under her mother’s bed
(c) In a box in the attic
(d) In a notebook in the basement

4. How does Jing-Mei describe Mr. Chong’s eyes as always looking when she began piano lessons with him?
(a) Dark and mysterious
(b) Daunting and scary
(c) Sprightly and bright
(d) Tired and sleepy

5. Of her first lessons with Mr. Chong, Jing-Mei says, “I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord and then I just played some nonsense that sounded like” what?
(a) A solitary violin
(b) A cat running up and down on top of garbage cans
(c) A crash of bricks against a tin rooftop
(d) A chorus of birds singing in the treetops

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In what year did the film Bright Eyes bring Shirley Temple international fame?

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. When Jing-Mei’s mother still lived in China, her husband was serving as an officer where?

5. What color dress does Jing-Mei describe the girl wearing that she watches playing piano on The Ed Sullivan Show with her mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. What offer does Jing-Mei’s mother make her approaching Jing-Mei’s thirtieth birthday?

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

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

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

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

6. What are Suyuan Woo’s views of opportunity in America, as noted by the narrator in the opening of the story?

7. How and when did the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act influence immigration in the U.S.?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 910 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample