The only sentence that makes the most sense would be D) Neither Carla nor Tim plays in the marching band.
The correct answer is were.
Since English grammar has this thing called the sequence of tenses, which means that if the first verb in the sentence is in the past tense, all following verbs will have to be in the past tense as well.
So here, the first verb is <em>knew, </em>which is the past simple tense of the verb <em>to know, </em>which means that the following verb <em>to be </em>also has to be given in the past. The past simple form of the verb <em>to be </em>for plural is WERE.
<span><span><span>B. mere gossip.</span> </span><span /><span><span>. I took the test and got it right</span></span></span>