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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Why does Jing-Mei say she sent a tuner to recondition the piano at her parents’ house?
2. Jing-Mei describes Mr. Chong when she began piano lessons with him as “very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of” what?
3. What does Auntie Lindo’s daughter say matter-of-factly to Jing-Mei after her performance at the talent show?
4. Jing-Mei says that soon after her mother got the idea for her to be a Chinese Shirley Temple, she took her to a beauty school in what district?
5. Jing-Mei says that during her childhood, the tests her mother gave her “got harder—multiplying numbers in my head, finding” what card in a deck of cards?
Short Essay Questions
1. What are Suyuan Woo’s views of opportunity in America, as noted by the narrator in the opening of the story?
2. In what ways does Suyuan Woo lack in communication with her daughter in the beginning of the story?
3. How does the narrative style in “Two Kinds” shift throughout the story? Why does it shift?
4. What does Jing-Mei overhear her mother saying about her to Auntie Lindo midway through the story?
5. In what ways can the reader see early in the story that Jing-Mei’s ambitions (and her mother’s) are misplaced?
6. How do Suyuan Woo’s ambitions in the beginning of the story set up the central conflict in “Two Kinds”?
7. How does Jing-Mei’s mother look after her performance at the talent show? What does Jing-Mei think as she watches the following performances?
8. What happens when Suyuan Woo quizzes her daughter on country capitals? What other activities does she test out on Jing-Mei when she is young?
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. What child star does Suyuan Woo attempt to mold her daughter into? What happens with this attempt?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Identify and discuss the elements of narrative style in “Two Kinds.” Is the story related in the past, present or future tense? Is the story told from a first, second, or third person narrator? Is the narrator involved in the action? Examine the different reasons the author may have chosen this style. What do you think it adds to the story?
Essay Topic 2
Analyze and discuss the character of Suyuan Woo in “Two Kinds.” How does Jing-Mei describe her mother’s tragic history and her immigration into the U.S.? What happened to Suyuan’s young twin daughters? What does Suyuan believe? How does she change in the story?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the theme of the American Dream in “Two Kinds.” How does the theme manifest in the story? How does this theme relate to the character of Suyuan Woo? What symbolism is used in the narrative to reinforce this theme?
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This section contains 967 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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