English Every Day: America's Independence Day (July 4th)

Your Daily English Programme #5 - Independence Day (Listening B2-C1)

Do you have a 'National Independence Day' in your country? When is it? How do people in your country celebrate this day?

In the United States, July 4th is Independence Day: commemorating US independence from Britain and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on the same day back in 1776. It is a national holiday, and of course Americans celebrate it with fireworks, picnics, parties, and baseball.

At Engramme, we're using this opportunity to introduce you to the economy of the United States - and why it has been so prosperous¹.

Think Before You Listen

In this video, American professor and historian Burt Folsom poses 2 key questions. Think about your answers before you listen:

a) Why is America the world's richest country?

b) Is it because of its government, or its successful entrepreneurs?

Watch and Listen

Watch the first 0:49 seconds. What are professor Folsom's answers to the questions above?

Let's Practice!

In the rest of the video, the speaker gives 3 examples of individual businessmen who succeeded in the same business ventures where the government failed. Listen on and find out why these businessmen succeeded and the government failed [click HERE for the full text+highlighted vocabulary of the video]

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THIS WEEK's OPTIONAL WRITING CHALLENGE²

This time, we've designed activities that will help you transfer your skills from listening to (paragraph) writing. Choose one of the tasks below according to your level of English proficiency:

Activity for Upper-Intermediate (B2) Levels:

I have written the beginning of a paragraph from each of the examples for you. Listen again to one of the examples given in the video and complete the related paragraph below.

(Write your paragraph(s) in the 'comments' & our moderators will help with your English)

1) In 1808, John J. Astor, recognizing the global demand for fur products, founded the "American Fur Company". The government, too, decided to enter this market and make profits. So, it started a rival company headed by Thomas McKenney, and backed by federal subsidies. But Astor...

2) In the 1840s, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, the precursor to today's instant messaging. But he was more of an idealist than a businessman; so, he allowed the government to take over his business. But the government...

3) In the 1840s, steamship businesses profited enormously from regular travel between America and England. The US government decided to get control of this lucrative business through Edward Collins, a congressional  lobbyist. Meanwhile, Cornelius Vanderbilt...

Activity for Upper-Intermediate (B2) Levels:

Do you agree with presenter's analysis? Here's another video where the presenters think America's economy is NOT so great! Can you describe their opposing views in 1 or 2 paragraphs?

Activity for Upper-Int./Advanced (B2-C1) Levels:

What's your country's economic system like? Write a paragraph or two comparing and/or contrasting the economic system in your country with that in the USA.

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And that brings us to the end of today's lesson. Hope it helped you challenge & improve your listening to academic lectures and topics. Click HERE to see answers to this lesson's questions & sample writings.

Here's a pdf copy for teachers for classroom use, including a full video transcript, answers to this lesson's questions & sample writings.

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1 Why this topic? We realize that most of our followers are within academic contexts in both English-speaking & non-English-speaking countries. Therefore, we thought that topics with academic content should be of use to them. Let us know if you find this useful (or otherwise).^↩
2 Why this? If you are a student of English, or are planning to take an international test of English such as IELTS/ TOEFL/ Cambridge Examinations, you need to develop the skill of paragraph writing. And we believe it is best when done based on prior listening/reading input.^↩