Incidentally that statement only sense if you know which direction to turn the focus knob, and you recognize the fact that the hypothetical microscope is capable of crushing the specimen. I had one when I was a kid that was incapable of doing so.
I answered the question correctly, but it only due to my cynicism, not my reading comprehension.
Utterly incomprehensible!
The fact that the journalist is that dense is mostly a symptom of "oh hey I've found an argument against standardized testing to fit my preexisting conceptions of the matter! Screw reading it, it looks complicated, I'll just use it to justify things." Same basic problem.
s/microscope/computer and you have the cause of an average Helpdesk's stress...
ed. Downvotes? Really? Nobody has ever struggled with a problem which could be solved if the help-ee has bothered to read the text on their screen?
On the other hand, when she doesn't call me for help, she ends up printing off a picture from a webpage and scanning it back in to get it into a power point presentation. That's better than giving up on the problem, I guess.