At first the old trunk in the basement appeared empty

a. direct object

b. indirect object

c. objective complement

d. predicate nominative

e. predicate adjective

It really depends on what word is underlined. We can rule out A, B, and C, since there are no objects in the sentence. We can also rule out D, because a predicate nominative is the first noun that follows a linking verb, such as appeared in this sentence. Since the first word after that linking verb is empty, which is an adjective (and which I assume is the underlined word), the correct answer is E. predicate adjective. It is the first adjective following a linking verb.