Answer:
The correct sentence in standard English would be:
"A pen and a bottle of ink were on the table."
Step-by-step explanation:
The sentence "A pen and a bottle of ink was on the table" is not standard English. The subject of the sentence is a compound subject (consisting of "a pen" and "a bottle of ink"), which should be treated as plural. Therefore, the verb should also be in the plural form.
Here, the plural verb "were" agrees with the plural compound subject "a pen and a bottle of ink."