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 Euronews:

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 you think of an animal.

We might say that a snake is poised to strike.

And 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.

Yeah. So 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.

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, ice cream sellers.

We're looking at declares war on.

This sounds very dramatic.

OK, yeah.

I mean, this isn't literal.

Literally is when one country says to another country, we're at war with you.

But this isn't that.

It's just talking about a confrontation.

There's a conflict or disagreement between the city council and the ice cream sellers.

Yes. So declare war on here in the headline is metaphorical.

And 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?

OK, 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 antisocial 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 we use it?

OK, well, here we're 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 sort of.

Are there any other alternatives?

Well, kind of means the same, and that's often kinda or kind of.

Both of these expressions are very common in English as fillers, which are the words that 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.

Isn't that what it is? - 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'd be better if we kind of looked at that again.

Oh yeah, OK.

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.

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