The word equation for the reaction between zinc oxide and carbon to produce vapor monoxide is:

Zinc oxide + Carbon → Vapor monoxide

The skeleton balanced equation is:

ZnO + C → CO

To balance the equation, we need to add coefficients to the reactants and products. In this case, we need to add a coefficient of 2 to the ZnO and a coefficient of 1 to the CO. The balanced equation is:

2ZnO + C → 2CO