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  3. Cordia Harrington was tired of standing up all day and smelling like French fries at night. A property developer, she also owned

Cordia Harrington was tired of standing up all day and smelling like French fries at night. A property developer, she also owned

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问题     Cordia Harrington was tired of standing up all day and smelling like French fries at night. A property developer, she also owned and operated three McDonald’s franchises, but as a divorced mother of three boys, she yearned for a business that would provide for her children and let her spend more time with them.
    Her aha moment struck, after she was nominated in 1992 to be on the McDonald’s bun committee. "The other franchisees, all men, thought that was funny because of the word bun," she recalls. "But the joke was on them: They didn’t know the company would be picking me up in a corporate jet to see bakeries around the world!"
    The experience opened her eyes to business possibilities. When McDonald’s decided it wanted a new bun supplier, Harrington became determined to win the contract, even though she had no experience running a bakery.
    Harrington studied the bakery business and made sure she was never off executives’ radar. "If you have a dream, you can’t wait for people to call you," she says. "So I’d visit a mill and send them photos of myself in a baker’s hat and jacket, holding a sign that said ’I want to be your baker.’" After four years and 32 interviews, her persistence paid off.
    Harrington sealed the deal with a handshake, sold her franchises, invested everything she owned, and borrowed $13.5 million. She was ready to build the fastest, most automated bakery in the world.
    The Tennessee Bun Company opened ahead of schedule in 1997, in time for a slump in U. S. fast-food sales for McDonald’s. Before Harrington knew it, she was down to her last $20,000, not enough to cover payroll. And her agreement with McDonald’s required that she sell exclusively to the company. "I cried myself to sleep many nights," she recalls. "I really did think I am going to go bankrupt."
    But Harrington worked out an agreement to supply Pepperidge Farm as well. "McDonald’s could see a benefit if our production went up and prices went down, and no benefit if we went out of business," she says. "That deal saved us."
    Over the next eight years, Harrington branched out even more: She started her own trucking business, added a cold-storage company, and now has three bakeries producing fresh buns and frozen dough.
    Grateful for the breaks she’s had, Harrington is passionate about providing opportunities to all 230 employees. "Financial success is the most fun when you can give it away," she says. "We had a project that came in under budget one year, and we gave each of our project managers a car with a big bow!"
The early stages of The Tennessee Bun Company were so difficult that Harrington couldn’t even afford to______.
选项
答案cover payroll
解析 由空前的afford to可知，本空应填一原形动词(短语)。根据题干中的The Tennessee Bun Company定位在第六段前两句。首句讲到，田纳西面包公司开业时恰逢美国麦当劳快餐销售的下滑期，田纳西面包公司的日子非常艰难；第二句具体讲艰难的处境，Harrington只剩下最后的两万美元，连员工工资都支付不起。题干中的couldn’t even afford to对应文中的not enough to，故cover payroll即为答案。
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