Answer:
"The verb tenses in the sentence are consistent."
Step-by-step explanation
In the sentence, the verb "stepped" is in the past tense, which matches with the action of the students stepping onto the stage. The verb "asked" is also in the past tense, which matches with the action of the students asking the audience for quiet. The verb tenses in the sentence are consistent because they both refer to actions that happened in the past.
The other options suggest changing the verb tenses in the sentence, but these changes would make the sentence grammatically incorrect.
For example, in the sentence "The pair of students stepped onto the stage and ask the audience for quiet," the verb "ask" should be changed to "asked" to match the past tense of "stepped."
In the sentence "The pair of students will have stepped onto the stage and ask the audience for quiet," the verb "will have stepped" is in the future perfect tense, which does not match with the past tense of "asked."
In the sentence "The pair of students step onto the stage and asked the audience for quiet," the verb "step" is in the present tense, which does not match with the past tense of "asked."
Therefore, the answer that best describes the example sentence is that the verb tenses in the sentence are consistent.