Subjunctive,because it's using the word "were",which is a verb,and it is contary to reality&a wish or a hypothetical.
Signal Phrases<span>. </span>Signal Phrase<span>: a </span>phrase<span>, clause, or even sentence which leads into a quotation or statistic. These generally include the speaker/author's name and some justification for using him or her as an expert in this context; it may also help establish the context for the quotation.</span>
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>.
The answer is to identify the supporting details.
