If some of the passengers of the boat Silver Trout board the Lovely Mary instead, then which boat will have more passengers on it?
(1) The Silver Trout will have 25% fewer passengers than it currently has.
(2) The Lovely Mary will have 50% more passengers than it currently has.

A. Statement (1) BY ITSELF is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (2) by itself is not.
B. Statement (2) BY ITSELF is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (1) by itself is not.
C. Statements (1) and (2) TAKEN TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, even though NEITHER statement BY ITSELF is sufficient.
D. Either statement BY ITSELF is sufficient to answer the question.
E. Statements (1) and (2) TAKEN TOGETHER are NOT sufficient to answer the question, meaning that further information would be needed to answer the question.


(C) Neither statement by itself is sufficient, because we do not even know which has more passengers on board.

Let's use the both statements and denote the number of passengers that will switch the ships as x. Statement (1) tells us that a quarter of the passengers will leave the ship, so there are 4x passengers currently on the Silver Trout. Similarly, Statement (2) tells us that there are 2x passengers currently on the Lovely Mary. If x passengers board the second ship instead of the first, then they will have the same number of passengers on board, 3x. Thus, the correct answer is C.
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Nowhere it is mentioned that the number of passengers in both the ships is equal. Hence wouldn't it be wrong to assume that both ships have x passengers in the beginning?

Indeed, it would be wrong to assume so.
By x we denote the number of passengers that will switch their ship. As the result, the initial number of passengers on board are 4x and 2x respectively (which are clearly not equal).