"We want Singapore to have the X-factor, that buzz that you get in London, Paris, or New York." That is how Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore’s prime minister, (1) his government’s decision to (2) gambling in the country, (3) two large, Vegas-style casinos. Whether the casinos will indeed help to transform Singapore’s staid image remains to be seen. But the decision bas already (4) an uncharacteristic buzz among the country’s normally (5) citizens.

The government has contemplated, and rejected (6) casinos several times in the past. One reason was (7) Singapore’s economic growth was so rapid that casinos seemed like an unnecessary evil. Buddhism and Islam, two of the country’s main religions, (8) on gambling. The government itself has traditionally had p, and often (9) , ideas about how its citizens should behave. Until recently, for example, it refused to (10) homosexuals to the civil service. It also used to (11) chewing gum, which it considers a public nuisance.

Nowadays, (12) , Singapore’s electronics industry, the mainstay of the economy, is struggling to cope with cheap competition from places like China. In the first quarter of this year, output (13) by 5.8% at an annual rate. So the government wants lo promote tourism and other services to (14) for vanishing jobs in manufacturing.

Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, (15) the two proposed casinos could (16) in as much as $4 billion in the initial investment alone. (17) its estimates, they would have annual revenues of (18) $3.6 billion, and pay at least $600 million in taxes and fees. The government, for its part, thinks the integrated (19) , as it coyly calls the casinos, would (20) as many as 35,000 jobs.

11（）

A．ban

B．prevent

C．limit

D．authorize