122. Neither the project manager nor the developers ______ available to answer questions during the system outage.
(A) were
(B) was
(C) is
(D) has been

When subjects are joined by "neither... nor..." (or "either... or..."), the verb must agree with the subject closest to it.

The subject closest to the blank is "the developers" (plural).

Because "the developers" is plural, the verb must also be plural (were).

If the sentence were flipped ("Neither the developers nor the project manager..."), the correct answer would be was.

文法重點：Neither A nor B

當主詞由 Neither A nor B 連接時，動詞要與離它最近的主詞一致（就近原則）。

本題

• A = the project manager（單數）
• B = the developers（複數）

因為離動詞最近的是 developers（複數），所以要用複數動詞：

Neither the project manager nor the developers were available.

✅ 正確

類似考法

複數靠近動詞

Neither John nor his friends are coming.

（friends 複數 → are）

單數靠近動詞

Neither his friends nor John is coming.

（John 單數 → is）

#outage（名詞）指的是：中斷、停擺、無法提供服務的狀態

常用於電力、網路、系統、通訊等服務暫時停止運作的情況。

本題中的意思

system outage

＝ 系統故障
＝ 系統中斷
＝ 系統停機