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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. How does Jing-Mei describe the look on her mother’s face when Jing-Mei looks up from her curtsey after her piano solo in the talent show?

2. What does Jing-Mei promise herself when she has the revelation while staring in the bathroom mirror as a child?

3. What does Jing-Mei say she put the sweaters her mother knitted in after she died in the end of the story?

4. Why does Jing-Mei say she sent a tuner to recondition the piano at her parents’ house?

5. What is the name of the street that Jing-Mei’s family lives on when she is a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the most significant element of the communication and culture gaps between Jing-Mei and her mother in the story?

2. 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?

3. What performer fascinates Suyuan Woo while watching the Ed Sullivan Show early in the story? How does Jing-Mei respond?

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. What does Jing-Mei say in defense of the performer on the Ed Sullivan Show when she is criticized by her mother? How does this defense backfire?

6. What does Jing-Mei discover about playing the piano as she begins her studies with Mr. Chong?

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

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

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

10. How does Jing-Mei feel as she prepares to perform at the talent show?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 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

Describe and discuss the song “Pleading Child” from Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood and examine the symbolism of this song in the story. How does this song correlate to Jing-Mei’s relationship with her mother? What does she later discover about the song?

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