[slillibri]

I'm sorry, but "At what moisture level do crackers become soft" isn't complex syntax. I would simply blame lack of basic literacy taught in schools, and the 'whole word' method. I would recommend the 'Sold a Story' podcast series[1] for more information.

[1] https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

[jph00]

That wouldn't explain why the biggest decreases are in older adults, who have been out of school for many decades.

[Aeolun]

I would say “at what moisture level do crackers become soft” is very general. What is a “moisture level?” They should be specific.

Though I guess half of the point is they want people to tease it out.

[Spivak]

When it comes to evaluating literacy you take everything in the text to be fact and assume it makes sense. It shouldn't require any external knowledge or synthesis beyond understanding the language itself.

I don't like these tests very much because they live in a somewhat uncanny valley for me for the reason you're getting at. They're almost questions you would encounter in real life but play by different rules than people assume. Like no the question really is that easy, but you have to be told that because otherwise you'll assume you're missing something.

[ahazred8ta]

There are many people who can understand "What level does X happen at?", but do not understand "At what level does X happen?"

[KiwiJohnno]

I would posit that perhaps this is exactly what this article is about?

I mean, we're not talking about complex grammar.