The area designated for pedestrian crossing on a street is known as a zebra crossing or pedestrian path.
From the Latin word passus , step , is a term with multiple meanings. The concept can refer to the movement of the feet when walking: “When I wanted to take a step to the side, I tripped and hit my face against the flowerpot” , “Please take a step forward so I can sweep this area” .
Other similar meanings of the notion refer to the distance traveled by walking , the continuous movement that allows an animated being to advance and the way or manner of walking : "Juan bought a bar that is located a few steps from the train station " , "Upon hearing the footsteps, the man went to the door and met the thief" , "The Federal Police prevented the passage of the protesters who intended to protest in front of the Ministry of the Interior" .
Steps when walking
The sound of footsteps walking is a figure often used in horror stories, as it can generate anxiety in those who hear them if they do not know where they come from, especially if the scene is dark or apparently deserted. The possibilities are many, as footsteps produce different noises and sounds depending on the characteristics of the floor: usually, suspense films use wooden houses with floors in poor condition, as these creak when someone walks on them.
On the other hand, steps not only provide information about the type of surface on which they are made, but also about the subject's mood, age, body weight, species, and other properties. Slow, elongated steps may denote tiredness or old age; others, uneven and very fast, may be made by a child or a young animal.
The movement performed in a dance is called a step.
Stages of a process
The successive advances in a process can be known as steps: “The first step is to qualify for the World Cup: then we will have time to analyze how far we can go” , “I don't know what step I went wrong in, but the recipe came out wrong” , “Driving the screws is the last step before having the furniture finished” .
Organizing a process into steps has several benefits. Firstly, it allows you to successfully repeat it as many times as you want, obtaining the same result each time. On the other hand, it also offers the possibility of teaching it to other people, so that they can reproduce it for themselves; this has been key to education and the transmission of knowledge between human beings since time immemorial.
By communicating an idea structured in steps, it is easier to explain and learn it, as this opens the door to a fragmented exposition of the process: by knowing all the steps, the person who assumes the role of teacher can decide to teach the content in several sessions, so that the student has more time to assimilate each part.
But this type of content organization is not only beneficial for dissemination, but also allows errors to be detected more easily: if a process does not yield the expected results, it is advisable to repeat it slowly to find the step that causes the error , and thus be able to correct it in isolation.
From birth, we learn to reproduce a large number of processes, although we are generally not aware of the steps that compose them; this explains certain defects in our posture, in our way of walking and speaking, for example, which can be corrected through re-education that shows us the independent parts of these actions.
Step as a place and as a movement
Paso is also the place where you go from one part to another : “If you want to cross to Santa Isabel, I recommend using Paso del Cobre, since the road is in better condition” , “The border crossing was closed due to strong storms” , “The government announced the reopening of the railway crossing” .
The movements that are made in the dances , finally, are called steps: “My son learned Michael Jackson's step” , “The girl surprised the jury with her risky steps” .