What happened with Lehman Brothers was that not only did they have bad mortgage backed securities, they actually had real estate. They weretrying to flip real estate. They bought some of it at the peak andthey thought that they could get rid of it. So, in some cases,it was not just the mortgage-backed securities; it was a veryleveraged position in an overblown real estate market.

　　“雷曼兄弟”之所以破产不仅因为他们持有次级按揭债券，还因为他们涉足房地产投资，想在房地产市场做些快速的短期投资(炒房地产)。他们在房价处于巅峰的时候买入，本来认为自己可以迅速脱手。所以导致雷曼兄弟倒台的元凶不只是按揭债券　还因为它在泡沫严重的房地产市场中过度使用杠杆投资。

　　---沃顿教授

　　上面这段话出自沃顿知名教授。不要以为是著名商学院教授,，说出来的英语照样通俗易懂。通过背诵上面这段话，你不但知道最近“雷曼兄弟”破产事件发生的原因，你还会知道“炒房”(house flipping)用英语怎么说;并且还能学到“按揭债券”这个最基本的金融词汇。当你脱口而出这段话时，你也可以成“教授”了。

　　再看下面这两句：

　　Is it your sense that we are closer to the end of this crisis or are we still somewhere in the beginning, or is it that we just can't tell?

　　您认为这场危机几近结束还是才刚开始，或是我们现在还无法判断?

　　Why are Chinese much more likely to be open to India than the other way around?

　　为什么中国对印度开放的程度要比印度对中国开放的程度要高?

　　背上面这两句话的时候要把自己想象成一个记者。背得多了你就会发现，无论中文再拗口，你总能用地道纯正的平易英语表达出来。