1. The problem asks to express the logical statement $\sim p \lor \sim q$ in words. 2. Here, $p$ means "The test is short" and $q$ means "The test is easy". 3. The symbol $\sim$ means negation, so $\sim p$ means "The test is not short" and $\sim q$ means "The test is not easy". 4. The symbol $\lor$ means logical OR, which means "or" in English. 5. Therefore, $\sim p \lor \sim q$ translates to "The test is not short or the test is not easy". 6. This means at least one of the statements "The test is short" or "The test is easy" is false.