Select the simple subject.
The ship's navigator closely monitored the weather.

The ship's navigator

Explanation:

A simple subject is a main word or words that tell whom or what a sentence discusses. The simple subject is only who or what is “doing” the verb, without any modifiers.

there is no passage what do you mean?

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the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).