It was ____ a terrible day that we stayed indoors.

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Multiple Choice

It was ____ a terrible day that we stayed indoors.

Explanation:
It’s testing how we intensify a noun phrase that leads to a result clause with “that.” After “It was,” we want to emphasize the day itself, not just the adjective, so we use a determiner with an adjective: “such a terrible day.” This form—“such a [adjective] [noun]” followed by “that …” to show consequence—is a natural, common way to express a very strong feeling about something and its result, here that we stayed indoors. Why this fits best: “such” brings out the degree of the noun phrase as a whole—the day was of such a terrible kind that it caused us to stay indoors. Other options don’t fit as smoothly with the exact structure. “Very” isn’t used with “that” in this pattern when you have a singular countable noun with an article; you’d more likely say “It was a very terrible day” and drop the “that we stayed indoors.” “So” could work in a similar formal construction (“so terrible a day that …”), but in ordinary usage “such a terrible day” is the more natural pairing here. “Quite” doesn’t fit well with this particular “that” consequence pattern. So the sentence sounds natural and complete with: It was such a terrible day that we stayed indoors.

It’s testing how we intensify a noun phrase that leads to a result clause with “that.” After “It was,” we want to emphasize the day itself, not just the adjective, so we use a determiner with an adjective: “such a terrible day.” This form—“such a [adjective] [noun]” followed by “that …” to show consequence—is a natural, common way to express a very strong feeling about something and its result, here that we stayed indoors.

Why this fits best: “such” brings out the degree of the noun phrase as a whole—the day was of such a terrible kind that it caused us to stay indoors. Other options don’t fit as smoothly with the exact structure. “Very” isn’t used with “that” in this pattern when you have a singular countable noun with an article; you’d more likely say “It was a very terrible day” and drop the “that we stayed indoors.” “So” could work in a similar formal construction (“so terrible a day that …”), but in ordinary usage “such a terrible day” is the more natural pairing here. “Quite” doesn’t fit well with this particular “that” consequence pattern.

So the sentence sounds natural and complete with: It was such a terrible day that we stayed indoors.

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