Banning ice cream and pizza in Milan?
This is News Review from BBC
Learning English where we help you understand news headlines in English.
I'm Beth. And I'm Phil.
Make sure you watch to the end
to learn the vocabulary that you need to talk about this story.
And remember to subscribe to our channel to learn more English
from the headlines. Now,
today's story. For many, ice cream, pizza and Italy
go hand in hand.
Now, the northern city of Milan has plans to ban the sale
of these famous Italian foods late at night.
The city's council is considering the move
after complaints about noise from local residents.
Critics of the plan
say it will damage local businesses.
You've been looking at the headlines,
Phil. What's the vocabulary
that people need to understand this news story in English?
We have: poised, declares war on
and sort of. This is News Review from BBC
Learning English.
Let's have our first headline.
This is from your Euro News. Why is Milan poised to ban ice cream and pizza
after midnight?
So, this headline asks why Milan is trying to ban pizza and ice cream.
We're looking at the word, poised. Phil,
what can you tell us about it?
OK, well, literally poised means in position and ready to act.
Maybe think of an animal –
we might say that a snake is poised to strike.
What that means is that the snake is looking at the mouse,
it's very still and just getting ready to jump on the mouse and eat it.
But here, poised is metaphorical. We're not literally talking about an animal.
But, imagine the council, ready to do something dramatic
and that thing is to ban ice cream and pizza.
Yes. And we often use poised to mean ready to do – something poised to act,
poised to announce. It has this idea of anticipation –
that there's something quite serious coming, quite often.
Yes. And pizza and ice cream in Milan is definitely serious business.
OK, let's look at that again.
Let's have a look at our next headline.
And this is from the Telegraph. Italian city
declares war on ice cream sellers.
So this headline again is about the Italian city,
Milan, versus ice cream or
ice cream sellers.
We're looking at 'declares war on'. This sounds very dramatic.
Yeah, I mean
this isn't literal - literally it's when one country says to another country
'we are at war with you'. But this
isn't that. It's just talking about a confrontation as a conflict
or disagreement between the city council and the ice cream sellers.
Yes. So, 'declare war on' here in the headline is metaphorical.
This reminds me of another phrase which is 'the war on something'. Again,
it's not really to do with the military or armies.
You might hear about the war on unemployment or the war on drugs.
What kind of situations do we hear it in usually?
We often hear this from politicians or journalists reporting
on politicians, and when they announce a war on something
it means it's a problem
they want to take strong action against.
So, we could talk about this policy
perhaps as a war on noise or a war on anti-social behaviour
or something like that. Yeah.
OK, let's look at that again.
Let's have our next headline.
This is from the Metro. Milan wants to ban gelato,
pizza and other Italian favourites (sort of).
OK. So, this headline is saying the same thing again.
It's all about banning that food in Milan.
We are looking at sort of.
I use this expression all the time, Phil. Why do you we use it?
Well, here we are using 'sort of' to describe something that is
like something else.
So, we're saying this is like a ban.
It's not really a ban –
it's only after a certain time.
Yes. And something interesting about the pronunciation.
It's written in the headline 'sort of',
but when we pronounce it in spoken English,
we say 'sorta' or /sɔːtəv/. Are there any other alternatives?
Well, 'kind of' means the same,
and that's often 'kinda' or /kaɪndəv/. Both of these expressions
are very common in English as fillers, which are the words we say
when we're trying to think of the next word, so, often,
we'll sort of put another kind of word in the sort of gap...
Yeah.
Yeah, I think you've kind of explained that quite well.
But I think we should sort of just go and get ice cream now.
What do you think? Actually,
I think it would be better if we kind of looked at that again.
OK, yeah. Let's look at that again.
We've had poised – ready for
action, declares war on – tries to defeat
and sort of – in a way; kind of.
If you want to know more about food and drink, just click here.
to watch more programmes.
And don't forget to click here to subscribe to our channel
so you never miss another episode.
Thanks for joining us. Bye. Bye!