Need to Read is a multi-level reading skills development course covering the latest business news and opinion. It offers topical reading lessons based on business and finance articles that are updated weekly. The lessons are designed to improve Learners’ reading skills, develop vocabulary, increase reading speed and enable students to express their opinions about what they have read.

English for Business and Practical Use

English for business and practical daily use

  • Adaptive diagnostic test that recommends start level.
  • Topical reading lessons about business and finance.
  • 853 lessons. Each lesson is available in 3 versions: pre-intermediate level, intermediate level, and upper-intermediate level.
  • Activities to develop reading and speed-reading skills.
  • Vocabulary extension activities.
  • User-rated content to highlight most popular lessons.
  • Weekly performance goals to encourage regular study.
  • Printable content: lessons, results, comments, Word Bank.
  • Searchable Word Bank for reviewing vocabulary and key business concepts from the lessons.
  • Adaptive exit test to measure progress.

Requirements to pass the course

Recommended: complete 24 lessons (60{87f0c958c74bd471c016e24ed0ca91171b02792da1fdb790bb16580321fb9170} or more in Reading section), submit 12 comments and complete the exit test

Target audience

Individuals with a TOEIC® score of 255+

Study Flow

  • Take the diagnostic test.
  • Choose a lesson that you want to study.
  • Read the introduction and a short comment based on the topic of the lesson’s article. Answer a comprehension question.
  • Read the article and answer five multiple-choice comprehension questions.
  • Complete the required number of lessons. Students are recommended to study 3 different lessons per week.
  • Take the exit test.
  • Print your course completion certificate.

Study period

Recommended: three months

Lesson categories and sample lesson titles

  • Banking and finance
    Banks increase listening in to stop market abuse
    Japanese unemployment rate continues to fall
  • Business innovation
    Alfred Pritchard Sloan and customization
    Henry Ford: the father of mass production
  • Companies
    Apple’s smartphone market share threatened
    Smap sends shockwaves through Japan music industry
  • Countries and cultures
    Americans living on the breadline increases
    Obama to impose new gun controls
  • Economy
    Child labour exposed in minerals mining
    India’s GDP makes it fastest-growing economy
  • Education
    Bloodhound to target land speed record
    Chan family makes record donation to Harvard
  • Education and corporate training
    Employers grapple with ageing workforces
    Online tools can boost chances of employment
  • Employment
    Chinese companies struggle to find workers
    The only fix for China’s managerial shortage
  • Environment
    Alberta’s carbon strategy to cut emissions
    Private investment to flow for clean energy
  • Finance and money
    AstraZeneca shakes up the antibiotics debate
    New infrastructure fund for Asia
  • Government and law
    Europe struggles with migrant crisis
    Tax privileges for rich foreign residents
  • Industries
    Polar oil platform to go ahead
    Trafigura to ship US oil Israel
  • International politics
    Abe courts Putin’s support in the Middle East
    African Union stalls on peacekeeping forces
  • Internet and new economy
    Google tweets and Twitter
    Online advertising under threat
  • Internet and technology
    British bank deploys Facebook at Work
    Cyber security and emerging markets
  • Management
    Better governance with women on UK boards
    Motivating staff in the workplace
  • Media
    Is it wrong to make money from a tragedy?
    Publishers must not succumb to digital kryptonite
  • News
    Safety concerns over death in French drug trial
    Sean Penn met El Chapo on the run
  • People
    Mark Zuckerberg’s new approach to philanthropy
    Pope’s message heard in Cuban mass
  • Science
    New hope for universal flu vaccine
    Philips pushes forward into digital health sector
  • Society and the wider world
    Achievements in medicine and new challenges
    What is the second most useful language?
  • Technology and innovation
    Artificial intelligence continues to raise concerns
    Fears over the future risks of artificial intelligence
  • Transport and travel
    Amtrak installs temporary safety measures
    Yellow cab drivers defect to Uber in NYC
  • Working practices
    First fund company to disclose gender breakdown
    Labour rights threatened in South Korea reforms