Tomorrow is the celebration of America’s independence.  This holiday is commonly called “The Fourth of July,” but the holiday is officially known as Independence Day. This is the day that American’s commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which was the United State’s first major step in severing ties with Great Britain.  Americans took this step to become an independent country on July 4, 1776, but it wasn’t until September 3, 1783 that the United States of America officially became independent from Great Britain.  None-the-less, July 4th is celebrated as America’s Independence Day.  The Fourth of July is a major non-religious holiday in this country and most American’s have the day off from work to celebrate.  The Fourth of July is commonly celebrated with parades, concerts, picnics, barbecues, and at the end of the day fireworks.  On this day you are also very likely to see American’s wearing the colors red, white and blue (the colors on the national flag).  They often make foods (especially desserts) that are red, white, and blue with stars and stripes like the American flag too.  Below is a video in which a woman talks about how to make a cake decorated to look like an American flag using Cool Whip (a type of whipped cream), strawberries, and blueberries.  This video is a great example of how a person talks in everyday English.  Following the video I have transcribed what she says.  You will notice that it is hard to break up what the woman says into sentences because when people talk they do not always talk in short perfect sentences.  The woman also uses the words “so” and “um” often. The word “so” is used as a transition, to move from one thought to another.  The sound “um” is a filler a sound people make when they are pausing between word and thoughts.  In my next post I will write further about short words, such as “so” and “um,” and how they are used in conversation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlcdNP5N7ZE

Video transcript:

So, tomorrow is 4th of July and we are going over to my aunt’s house so I’m going to bring a 4th of July cake.  And this recipe, or the actual cake part of the recipe, um, is just like “Amy dream flight 6000’s” (this is the name of another person on YouTube), um, I will put the link down below because she did a great job of, um, showing how to make the cake.  So, it is going to be a strawberry Jello, um, cake.  So you need the white cake mix, um, you need a small box of strawberry Jello, which I had to have Tim grab from the store because I forgot and then some Cool Whip and you don’t need this big of a container, the smaller container is big enough, but um I just got the big one because I use it for my waffles so…  Um, so, you are just going to make the white cake mix just like it says on, I keep dropping it, on the back of the box.  So, my lovely husband went and got Jello for me and he got the big, the bigger box, um but, you can use the smaller box.  I’m just gonna make Jello with some of it, anyways, so it is all mixed, you just follow the directions on Jello box and then the cake has been in the refrigerator all afternoon and I poked a whole bunch of holes all over it and now I am going to pour the Jello all over the cake, so that it all soaks in.  So, the cake was in the refrigerator all night and the strawberry Jello mix is all over the top and there are holes poked in it now I am going to put the Cool Whip on top and since it is 4th of July I am going to make a flag out of the blueberries and strawberries.  So, I am just going to smooth the Cool Whip on the top of the cake.  So here is the finished cake.  It is a strawberry Jello cake with Cool Whip topping and then blueberries and strawberries for the red stripes on the flag and then Ready Whip for little stars in the blueberries.  So, happy 4th of July.