Hey yeah in the study methodology they do a 7 question simple screener at the beginning. Those with poor scores do not take the questions you mention which are

Hey yeah in the study methodology they do a 7 question simple screener at the beginning. Those with poor scores do not take the questions you mention which are intended for people who definitely have basic literacy. They instead do a test involving someone sits with them and shows them photos of laundry detergent and asks what's the name of the brand. If it's Era and the person says Tide that's a half-credit, if they say Tide it's a full credit. And so on. It's to determine exactly how bad are things. But even with the test you mention you and I would definitely score far far above the "Below Basic" level that is a comparable term to illiterate. Sure they can recognize their own name and the word cat and dog, but they can't read a sentence in any newspaper or make sense of it.