Answer Key

Two Kinds
Pg: 25 Comprehension Check
1. She pressures her daughter to become a child prodigy. First she pressures the
daughter to become an actress. Next, she pressures her to learn facts in order
to appear on television. Then, she pressures her to become an accomplished
pianist.

2. The mother exchanges housecleaning services for piano lessons from Mr.
Chong, a retired piano teacher who lives in their apartment building.

3. The narrator practices as little as she can for the talent show. She purposely
makes no effort, and because Mr. Chong is deaf and cannot hear how well
she is playing, he does not notice.

4. The narrator’s piano performance at the recital is terrible, and no one

applauds except for Mr. Chong. The daughter expects her mother to be
angry because she was so poorly prepared. Instead, the mother shows only a
quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything.

5. The mother gives the daughter the old piano. The daughter has it tuned and
plays the same song that she played at the talent show.

P.26 Analyze the Text

1. (a) Both mother and daughter are strong-willed. The mother is more idealistic,
believing that all things are possible. The daughter is more realistic, believing that
one must accept restrictions in real life.
(b) The daughter believes she can never meet her mother’s expectations, and the
mother is angry because the daughter refuses to try.

2. The mother never achieves the life she wants for her daughter, and the daughter
doesn’t develop the self-esteem she might have had if she had followed her mother
obediently.
3. The mother pushed her daughter too hard. The mother’s efforts backfired. Her
daughter believed she would never be good enough and stopped trying.

4. People of different generations can learn from the ways that each other acts
under pressure and tries to influence each other.

Pg 27 Analyze Craft and Structure

1. The daughter as rebellious, insecure, proud, arrogant, funny, undisciplined.

2. The mother wants to inspire her daughter to be the best while the daughter
wants her mother to accept less.

3. The mother’s high expectations make disappointment inevitable; the

daughter’s perspective leads to feelings of guilt and resentment.

4. (a) The story is told from the daughter’s first person point of view.

(b) She uses first-person pronouns—I, me, my—and describes her own
thoughts and feelings about the events in the story.

5. If the mother were the narrator, the story would focus on her thoughts and
feelings instead of the daughter’s.

Pg. 28 Concept Vocabulary

1. The narrator thinks that her mother lamented her bad haircut.
The word discordant describes the type of hymns the narrator learns to play.
Devastated describes how the narrator feels when she sees her mother’s
expression after her performance.

2. willful (paragraph 19), whined (paragraph 31), foolish (48)

pg 28 Practice
1. A person who experiences indignity feels humiliation, shame, or
embarrassment. These feelings often lead to anger.

2. A celebrity chef is someone who has received a great deal of approval for
his or her cooking. This can lead her or him to feel beyond reproach.

3. The neighbors might complain about loud, discordant music because it

could interfere with their ability to sleep.

4. To help people avoid squabbling, I would encourage them to take turns

listening to each other.

5. If a student lamented after taking a test, the test probably did not go well at
all.

6. A tornado might have devastated, or destroyed, an apple orchard.

Pg 28 Word Study

1. Indignity means something that hurts a person’s dignity.

2. Incorrect means not correct, or wrong. Inactive means not active or not
working. Incomplete means not complete or unfinished.