The answer is Its.
Theirs/their pertains to more than one person belonging to items.
It's is a contraction form of "it is".
How did you put this in English section?????
The pair of verb forms which correctly completes the sentence is the following one:
A. are; appears.
The complete sentence would look like this:
"Mercury and Venus are relatively close to the sun, and neither Mercury nor Venus appears to support life."
In the first clause, the subject is formed by "Mercury and Venus", which means it is plural, and therefore it requires a plural verb (<em>Mercury and Venus</em> are= <em>They</em> are).
In the second clause, there is a neither...nor construction, and both elements which form the subject (again, <em>Mercury and Venus</em>, but this time used in the construction <u>neither</u><u><em> Mercury </em></u><u>nor</u><u><em> Venus</em></u>) are singular nouns, which means a singular verb must be used: neither Mercury nor Venus <em>appears</em>.
Why are you asking about this
Answer: The most important event in chapter eight of <u>The Outsiders</u> is Ponyboy and Randy's conversation outside of the diner. The significance of this scene is that Randy and Ponyboy find a common ground by talking about Bob and the school children. Randy realizes that Greasers are more than just hot-headed guys who like to fight, and Pony realizes that just because the Socs are different, they are people too, just like him. They both leave with a better understanding of each other, almost like bridging a gap between the Socs and Greasers.