Step 1: Reading vision depends on accommodation, which steadily declines with age; presbyopia is corrected by adding a plus lens to make up the deficit.
Step 2: The required add is graded by age - roughly $+1\,D$ in the early forties, climbing through $+1.5$ to $+2\,D$ in the fifties.
Step 3: Once accommodation is nearly exhausted in old age, the add plateaus at its highest practical value, conventionally taken as $+3\,D$.
Step 4: A $+4\,D$ add is not a standard presbyopic prescription, so for an elderly patient the correct near add is $+3\,D$.
\[\boxed{+3\,D}\]