According to sources familiar with the matter, American Apparel started to lay off staff on Monday this week after Canada's GildanActivewear withdrew an initial plan to purchase some of the bankrupt fashion retailer's manufacturing operations.
知识点1:－词汇语法部分
形容词做后置定语：sources familiar with the matter
lay off 解雇
initial /ɪˈnɪʃ.əl/adj.最初的
purchase/ˈpɝː.tʃəs/ v. 购买
manufacture /ˌmæn.jəˈfæk.tʃɚ/ v.生产

知识点2:－发音
断句：According to sources familiar with the matter,／断句 American Apparel started to lay off staff on Monday this week／断句 after Canada's GildanActivewear withdrew an initial plan to purchase some of the bankrupt fashion retailer's manufacturing operations.
断句原则：句子太长，一个完整意思说完（意群），表现形式通常以一个特殊语法点出现。比如：主谓宾＋状语。就可能在状语前面断句。主谓＋宾语从句。就可能在宾语从句前面断句。

Just last week, Gildan won the rights to American Apparel's brand with an $88 million bid. According to sources, many of the over 2,100 employees at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles and nearly 1,000 employees at a manufacturing facility now stand to lose their jobs. In November 2016, American Apparel filed for a second time for bankruptcy protection with about $177 million in debt after the failure of a comeback plan.

知识点1:－数字表达点
2,100 –twenty one hundred
17:00 （下午5点）——seventeen hundred
187 million ---187,000,000 1.87亿美元。
File n.档案；v.递交档案