Question

09 Neither of the boys... able to win the
race​

Answer 1

Neither of the boys is/was able to win the race.

(boys are in plural but her the subject is 'Neither' which means any one of the boys, that is singular)

Hope it helps : )

Answer 2

The answer is 'was.'

Neither of the boys was able to win the race.

Subject-Verb Agreement

• This sentence belongs to an exercise on subject-verb agreement. The subject-verb agreement focuses on the correct usage of verbs as per the subject.

• The rules say that any sentence containing 'neither nor' should take a singular verb. Hence, a singular verb 'was' is used in the sentence.

• Since the race had already taken place, simple past tense is used.