The events 'select a plain pencil' and 'select a color pencil' are independent. therefore the probability of both occurring is the product of their probabilities:
[tex]P(plain\ pencil\ and\ color\ pencil)=\frac{5}{10}\times\frac{3}{10}=\frac{3}{20}[/tex]
The answer is 3/20 or 0.15.