What are the “reading” items asking for, exactly? I had assumed that “reading” meant “represent, in hiragana, how this word should be pronounced when spoken (i.e., how it should be read aloud).” But that can’t be right, because certain ways of representing the correct pronunciation (such as the OP’s example) are nevertheless considered incorrect “readings.”
So does “reading” actually just mean “spell these words using kana instead of kanji”?