sanju09 wrote:For statement (1) in particular:
In order to include the possibility that both the intercepts could be equal to 0; the phrase "x-intercept is twice the y intercept" would have been written as "x-intercept is (some) k times the y intercept, where k is not 0", instead of fixing a value for k, so I still believe that if the two statements were not contradicting here, this could have been a possible GMAT question with A as the answer.
I don't think you'll see a phrase like the one in the question on a real GMAT anyway (I don't think I've ever seen a question that uses 'twice' to mean 'two times'). That said, you can certainly see an equation like:
x = 2y
and you can't dismiss the possibility that x = y = 0, of course. Taking the statement literally, the intercepts could certainly both be zero; that's an entirely logical conclusion from the statement, as it is worded. If the GMAT wants to exclude that possibility, this will be made perfectly clear in the wording of the question; otherwise the question would not be fair.
I agree that it is a more interesting question, and a more GMAT-like question, if somehow the question conveys that the x- and y-intercepts are not at the origin. Then, of course, one of the statements needs to be changed so that they are not contradictory.
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