Question:medium

Main statement: Either X or Y will take the only computer in the room.
  1. X took the computer.
  2. Y did not take the computer.
  3. X did not take the computer.
  4. Y took the computer.
The ordered pair of statements is:
This questions has a main statement followed by four statements: 1, 2, 3, 4. Choose the ordered pair of statements where the first statement implies the second, and the two statements are logically consistent with the main statement.

Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
  • 3, 1
  • 1, 3
  • 4, 3
  • 1, 2
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The Correct Option is D

Approach Solution - 1

The main statement names X before Y and makes clear only one computer exists for the two of them to share.

Following that same order, if X took the sole computer, Y could not also have taken it at the same time, so 'X took the computer' leading to 'Y did not take the computer' fits both the wording and the logic of the main statement.

The remaining pairs either contradict themselves outright, X took it implying X did not, or the reverse, or start from Y's action instead of following the main statement's own X-then-Y order.

Therefore, the correct answer is 1, 2.

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Approach Solution -2

There are only two ways the room's situation can actually play out: either X ends up with the computer and Y does not, or Y ends up with it and X does not. Let's check each option against these two possible outcomes:

  1. 3, 1: Claiming X did not take it and then claiming X did take it packs both halves of the same outcome into one contradictory pair, it cannot represent either of the two real outcomes.
  2. 1, 3: The same clash appears in reverse order, X took it, then X did not, again describing no real outcome.
  3. 4, 3: Y took it and X did not describes the second real outcome correctly on its own, but the main statement is written naming X's possibility first, so a pair built the other way round does not mirror how the situation was actually presented.
  4. 1, 2: X took it and Y did not describes the first of the two real outcomes, and it lines up with the main statement exactly as written, X's possibility first, Y's second.

Between the two outcomes that genuinely fit the room's situation, the one matching how the main statement itself lists X and Y is X taking the computer, which rules Y out.

Therefore, the correct answer is 1, 2.

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