Lucy,there_____too many things on the desk.What a mess!—Sorry,Mum.I’ll put them away. A. have B. is

Lucy,there_____too many things on the desk.What a mess!—Sorry,Mum.I’ll put them away. A. have B. is C. are

The correct answer is C. are. In this sentence, "things" is a plural noun, so we need the plural form of the verb "to be." The phrase "there are" is used to indicate the existence of multiple items, which matches the plural subject "too many things."

This follows the basic grammar rule that the verb must agree with its subject in number: singular subjects take singular verbs ("there is a book"), while plural subjects take plural verbs ("there are books"). Since "things" is clearly plural, "are" is the grammatically correct choice.

The sentence would read: "Lucy, there are too many things on the desk. What a mess!" This construction properly matches the plural subject with the plural verb form.