I think they've extended the meaning of "reading" to include a certain level of "understanding what you just read". Your nonsense sentence can't pass the latter test because there is no understanding to be gleaned, but it's not at all obvious that that should how we view reading exactly for that reason.
Correct, but I don't know if they've extended anything. When you say someone reads at the 12th grade level, it has never meant that they can superficially sound out every word, it means they can understand what the text is trying to say.
