Adults are often embarrassed about asking for help.Seeking someone's assistance can make you feel like you are broadcasting your incompetence.New research suggests young children don't seek help in school for the same reason.
   Kayla Good，a graduate student in developmental psychology at Stanford University，and Alex Shaw，an associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago，applied a classic technique from developmental psychology to learn more about how children think about reputation.Across several studies，they asked 576 children，aged four to nine，to predict the behavior of two characters，Tom and Jack，in a story.Tom genuinely wanted to be smart，and Jack merely wanted to seem smart to others.In one study，they told children both characters did poorly on a test，and asked which of them would be more likely to raise their hands in front of their class to ask the teacher for help.
   The four-year-olds were equally likely to choose either of the two characters as the one who would seek help.But by age seven or eight，children thought Jack would be less likely to ask for assistance.And children's expectations were truly "reputational" in nature — they were specifically thinking about how the characters would act in front of peers.They could still imagine situations where Jack would seek help：when assistance could be sought privately （on a computer rather than in person） children thought both characters were equally likely to ask for it.
   Given the findings，it seems quite possible that when children themselves are the ones struggling，they，too，might avoid seeking out help if they are worried about reputation.If so，this unwillingness to seek help when others are present could obviously impede academic progress.To improve in any field，one must work hard，take on challenging tasks and ask questions.All of these efforts can be difficult when someone is on the mind of their appearance to others.

（1）What were the children asked to do about the two characters？

D

D

A．To assess their intelligence.
B．To predict their academic progress.
C．To discuss their possibility to get help.
D．To judge their willingness to ask for help.
（2）Who was likely to seek private aid according to the eight-year-olds？

D

D

A．Tom.
B．Jack.
C．Neither.
D．Both.
（3）What does the underlined word "impede" in paragraph 4 probably mean？

A

A

A．Prevent.
B．Guarantee.
C．Accelerate.
D．Monitor.
（4）What is the author's suggestion for kids？

B

B

A．Be ready to help others.
B．Be brave to ask for assistance.
C．Care more about reputation.
D．Make efforts to be smarter.