Articles (the / zero article / both initial costs)

5 years ago

Hello! 

Could you please help me with Gap 7. There are 3 options: 1. zero artile 2. the 3. both articles could go there - but not at the same time.

"I live in a relatively small town on the coast, with a sizeable tourist influx in the summer months. I noticed that, although there were any number of standard retail outlets where you could buy the usual chocolate bars and magazines, those old-fashioned sweet shops that used to be on every street corner when I was a child were merely a thing of the past. So I took out a bank loan to cover (7) the / — initial costs and now I sell delicious sweets with weird-sounding names, like fizzbanger and sherbert explosions."

Thank you very much!

P.S.: I've chosen "the" and it was marked wrong by the macmillanpracticeonline.com app.

So, I would be very grateful if you could explain where my mistake is and what I have to pay attention TO in order not to make this mistake once again.