Sentence improvement — Polite conditional request form: choose the most natural modal construction to refine ‘‘I shall be grateful to you if you are of help to me now.’’ so the register is courteous and idiomatic.

Given data
I shall be grateful to you if you are of help to me now.

Concept/Approach
In polite requests, English favors ‘‘I would be grateful if you would help me (now).’’ The modal ‘‘would’’ signals courteous willingness/volition.

Step-by-step evaluation
help — Bare infinitive after ‘‘if you’’ is ungrammatical here.would help — Correct: ‘‘I shall/would be grateful if you would help me now.’’helped — Simple past after ‘‘if’’ implies unreal/remote condition; clashes with ‘‘now’’.No improvement — Leaves the clumsy ‘‘are of help’’; less idiomatic.

Verification/Alternative
Equally natural: ‘‘I would be grateful if you could help me now.’’

Common pitfalls
Using ‘‘are of help’’ instead of the direct verb ‘‘help.’’ Overlooking courtesy modal ‘‘would/could’’ in requests.

Final Answer
would help