Question

The second step to solving the equation 2x – 7 – (x – 5) = 0 is to

Answer 1

Is it combine like terms or add the opposite to both sides?

Answer 2

Adding the opposite to both sides would only add a step later to get X on one side. You technically can't combine like terms because of the items in parentheses.

You would get the items out of the parentheses like so:
2x-7 + (-1)(x-5) = 0
2x-7 + -x + 5 = 0

x-2=0
x=2

Answer 3

I was talking about the step after distributing

@Wired