题目内容：

Like most July days, it was hot. I stepped into a tiny ice-cream shop to cool off with a chocolate ice-cream. It was an old-time store with little round tables and chairs.

As I entered, I found a very old woman bent over a table near the door. Her back was so badly twisted by some sadness that her face nearly touched the table top. I sat down facing her several tables away.

“Poor woman,” I thought. “What does she get out of life? Why God let people live so long past their prime?”

As I thought, another aged lady entered the shop and sat down with her. Soon the two of them were talking about childhood days. They talked of how little the shop had changed in 70 years… In minutes, the two of them were trembling with laughter.

I looked again at the first woman, then in the mirror on a nearby wall, catching a picture of myself.

I was wearing a dirty shirt. She was well dressed in white, her hands shining with gold rings.

I was gloomy(愁闷的). She was laughing, smiling.

I was putting the pieces of my life together. She had millions of wonderful memories to recall.

I sat alone. She was sharing the day with a good friend.

I was secretly worried about getting old. She was old, but it wasn’t hurting her.

As I left the shop, I thought of my foolish question about God letting people live past their prime. Why, that woman was more alive, more sensitive to life than I was. Age has not bent her spirit.

1.The word “prime” in paragraph 3 means ______.

A. old age         B. middle

C. childhood        D. greatest period of life

2.Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

A. To tell us the life of old people.

B. To show the difference between the old and the young.

C. To show that old age does not mean going short of spirit.

D. To make the reader have a pity on the old people.

3.Which of the following is the conclusion the writer made about the old lady?

A. She was to be pitied for her old age.

B. She considered the young man pitiable.

C. She was more alive and sensitive to life than the writer.

D. People should not be allowed to live when they are too old.