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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. What “magic word” as in conjuring does Jing-Mei use to describe the effect of her having said hurtful things to her mother during their fight about piano practice?

2. What does Jing-Mei’s mother tell her she looks like after she’s been given a bad perm at the beauty school?

3. 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?

4. Of her mother’s ambitions and her own as a child, Jing-Mei says, “I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with” what?

5. What does Jing-Mei’s mother do to earn money for the family when Jing-Mei is a child?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. How did critics receive The Joy Luck Club and “Two Kinds” upon publication?

5. How does the central conflict of the story begin to manifest in Jing-Mei’s mind following her revelation in the mirror?

6. How do Suyuan Woo’s actions in the story encourage the wrong responses from her daughter? What effects does this have on Jing-Mei?

7. How do the subjects and themes in Amy Tan’s works relate to those of other Asian American authors?

8. What innovations in literary style is Amy Tan known for?

9. How does the narrative style in “Two Kinds” shift throughout the story? Why does it shift?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the theme of “regret” seen in Jing-Mei following the fight with her mother after the talent show. Why does Jing-Mei regret the things that she said to her mother? How does this conflict in the story effectively change their mother-daughter relationship forever?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss the character of Lindo Jong in “Two Kinds.” How well do Jing-Mei and her mother know Lindo? What kind of relationship does Suyuan Woo have with this friend? How do the Woos feel about the Jong family?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 950 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample