Question

TEXTUL E MARE DAR AM NEVOIE SĂ-MI GĂSIȚI SINONIMELE LA
to continue(v)
a leisurely walk (n)


Birds do it. Cats do it. And Spaniards most especially do it—every day, in broad daylight.

They nap. Proudly, without a hint of embarrassment. Grown adults—executives, teachers, civil servants—wink off in the middle of the workday like kindergartners at mat time. From 1 or 2 o'clock to 4:30 or so every afternoon, Spain stops the world for a stroll home, a leisurely meal, a few z's. Common Market technocrats have informed the Spanish that this is not the way things will get done in the oft-threatened unified Europe. The Spanish reply with a flourish of rioja and snooze alarms. ¡Viva siesta!

At a time when productivity is the world's largest religion, the siesta tradition lives on. In Spain, work operates under the command of life, instead of the other way around. No task is so critical that it can't wait a couple of hours while you attend to more important matters like eating, relaxing, or catching up on sleep from a night on the town. When the midday break hits, offices empty and streets clear as if by the hand of Rod Serling. Befuddled foreigners left behind quickly learn that they have entered a new circadian order.
"At first, I kept looking for things to do in the afternoon, and I just couldn't believe that nothing was open," recalls Pier Roberts, an Oakland writer who lived in Spain for several years. "I walked the streets of Madrid looking for somewhere to go. It was a thousand degrees outside, you could see the heat waves, and it was like a ghost town."
Taking a long break in the middle of the day is not only healthier than the conventional lunch; it's apparently more natural. Sleep researchers have found that the Spanish biorhythm may be tuned more closely to our biological clocks. Studies suggest that humans are "biphasic" creatures, requiring days broken up by two periods of sleep instead of one up-till-you-drop "monophasic" shift. The drowsiness you feel after lunch comes not from the food but from the time of day. "All animals, including humans, have a biological rhythm," explains Claudio Stampi, director of the Chrono Biology Research Institute in Newton, Massachusetts. "One is a 24-hour rhythm—we get tired by the end of the day and go to sleep—and there is a secondary peak of sleepiness and a decrease in alertness in the early afternoon. Some people have difficulty remaining awake, doing any sort of task between one and four in the afternoon. For others it's less difficult, but it's there. So there is a biological reason for siestas.”
Unlike the average lunch break, the siesta is a true break in the action because there is no choice but to come to a full and complete stop. You can't do errands; the shops are closed. You can't make business calls; nobody's at the office. Most people go home for lunch, or get together with family or friends for a glass of vino, and nod out afterwards.

The Spanish need their sleep. They've got a long night ahead of them, because another key component of the siesta lifestyle is its nocturnal orbit. After the afternoon work shift, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. or so, they may join friends for a drink. Dinner starts at 9 or 10 p.m., and from there it's out on the town until one or two in the morning.

The siesta's origins lie in climate and architecture. Like people in other places around the globe that are blast furnaces much of the year, Spaniards turned to shade and stillness to avoid incineration in the middle of the day. At night, packed, simmering dwellings drove people into the streets to cool down.

Answer 1

Sinonime pentru "to continue": lives on, remaining, kept (looking),
"a leisurely walk": stroll

Cam atat am gasit.