---
title: Was everyone in the town running about like headless chickens? — Tales of the Punjab, Nur Mahomed and t… · tree and pragmatics
description: Was everyone in the town running about like headless chickens? Test 13 · ★ of lesson 1255 «Tales of the Punjab, Nur Mahomed and the Princess, part 56: the princess swaps a letter and a wedding is ordered» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the qu
---

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# Test 13 · ★ · Tales of the Punjab, Nur Mahomed and the Princess, part 56…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Was everyone in the town running about like headless chickens?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** town · **What happens:** be, run about · **To what, where:** everyone, town

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 13 · ★ of lesson 1255 «Tales of the Punjab, Nur Mahomed and the Princess, part 56: the princess swaps a letter and a wedding is ordered» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1255-pg3282-part56/#t13).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1255-pg3282-part56:t13:1
# text = Was everyone in the town running about like headless chickens?
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
2	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	running	run	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	headless	headless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	chickens	chicken	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | everyone |  | the town |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **run about** | gerund | the town *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like headless chickens; about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, the whole town was rushing about in a terrible panic and shouting

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1255-pg3282-part56:t13:o1:1
# text = Yeah, the whole town was rushing about in a terrible panic and shouting
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	rushing	rush	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	panic	panic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	shouting	shouting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rush** | past · progressive | the whole town |  |  |  |  | about a terrible panic and shouting | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about panic=Trajectory |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, all was calm

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1255-pg3282-part56:t13:o2:1
# text = Nah, all was calm
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	calm	calm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | all |  |  |  |  | calm *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, the streets were busy

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1255-pg3282-part56:t13:o3:1
# text = Yeah, the streets were busy
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the streets |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, everyone was in a flap

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1255-pg3282-part56:t13:o4:1
# text = Yeah, everyone was in a flap
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	flap	flap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | everyone |  |  | a flap |  |  | tree rules |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [Tales of the Punjab, Nur Mahomed and t…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1255-pg3282-part56/t12/)
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