For prose literacy , for example , a below basic level of literacy means that a person can look at a short piece of text to get a small piece of uncomplicated information . Similarly , a person who is `` below basic '' in quantitative literacy might be able to add two numbers . For prose literacy , for example , a below basic level of literacy means that a person can look at a short piece of text to get a small piece of uncomplicated information , while a person who is below basic in quantitative literacy would be able to do simple addition .