5. It was such an amazing wonder...

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The History of the Taj Mahal

 

 

This immense mausoleum was built on the orders of Shah Jahan, the fifth Muslim Mogul emperor, to honour the memory of his beloved late wife. It was built out of white marble and is regarded as the most perfect jewel of Muslim art in India.

The Emperor's third wife died during the birth of their fourteenth child in 1631, and he was so grief-stricken that he ordered to build up a mausoleum in his memory. The main designer is said to have been Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The construction began in 1632 and was completed in 1645. The surrounding buildings and the fantastic garden were finished five years later. It was constructed using so many materials from all over India and Asia that more than 1,000 elephants were used to transport them.

It is such a famous and beautiful monument that thousands of photographs have been taken of it everyday after the one by Samuel Bourne in 1860. Visitors agree that the Taj Mahal appears pink in the morning, white in the day and changes its colour to golden in the moon light.

 

To get further information about this splendid wonder, click on the picture above and watch the video. Enjoy the music, but do not forget to read the information provided in the video.


Read the passage carefully and underline the sentences where the words so and such appear.


We use so and such (a/an) to refer to cause → effect sentences. For example,

CAUSE → The Taj Mahal is wonderful. EFFECT → Paco contemplated it for hours.

The Taj Mahal is so wonderful (adj.) that Paco contemplated it for hours.

The Taj Mahal is such a beautiful monument (adj. + noun) that Paco contemplated it for hours.

Icono IDevice Further knowledge
Try these exercises online to go on improving these cause-effect sentences.

Icono de iDevice Self-Assessment activity

 


By h.koppdelaney. C. Commons

Taking into account the structures above, fill in the blanks with so, such, such a, or such an. Pay attention to singular and plural nouns! Come on, it's very easy!

1. The materials to build up the Taj Mahal were heavy that 1,000 elephants had to be used.

2. Elephants have strength that they can move heavy objects.

3. The monument is beautiful that it is visited by thousands of people every day.

4. Nobody has ever seen wonderful construction.

5. It was amazing wonder that Paco spent hours and hours enjoying it.

  

Icono IDevice Curiosity

The Seven Wonders of the World

 

Do you know which the other Six Wonders of the World are? They are so wonderful that all of them are visited by millions of tourists every year. Watch the video on the right to guess. If you want to know and learn more about them, click here!


This is the end of Topic 1. In it, we have introduced several points that will be deeply studied later in the unit: the use of the Past Perfect Continuous in contrast with the Past Perfect Simple, the use of some modal verbs, the Reported or Indirect Speech in contrast with the Direct Speech, and the use of so/such (a/an) in cause → effect sentences. Let's go on improving our English so that we may use it everywhere worldwide!
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