Final answer:
The correction needed for the sentence 'The gate near the competitors open at noon' is to change 'open' to 'opens'. The subject 'the gate' is singular and requires the singular form of the verb for proper subject-verb agreement.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the sentence provided, 'The gate near the competitors open at noon', the subject is 'the gate,' which is singular. Therefore, the verb should agree with a singular subject. So, the correction that should be made is to change 'open' to 'opens', as in 'The gate near the competitors opens at noon.' Options A) and C) are incorrect as they do not address the verb-subject agreement issue, and D) is incorrect because the sentence as it stands has a grammatical error.
When addressing verb-subject agreement, it is important to match the number of the subject (singular or plural) with the verb. A singular subject should be paired with a singular verb and a plural subject with a plural verb. In this case, 'gate' is the singular subject, so it requires the singular verb 'opens.'
As for sentences that overuse patterns like 'There is' or 'It is', it is often more engaging to use a sentence that clearly identifies a doer performing an action. An example would be revising 'There are many strategies' to 'Authors employ many strategies', which directly identifies 'authors' as the doers and 'employ' as the action.