--- title: Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and the ones who help — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and the ones who help», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Behind the mobile classroom, Jake and a Station Road boy squared up, and within a minute a crowd had formed, chant --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and t… # Bystanders: the crowd, the phone and the ones who help Lesson 393 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 26 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/everyday/393-bystanders/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/0/) — Behind the mobile classroom, Jake and a Station Road boy squared up, and within a minute a crowd had formed, chanting «fight, fight, fight». - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/1/) — Sam stood at the back with his stomach in knots, not knowing what to do. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/2/) — A crowd is like petrol: neither boy wanted to back down with thirty faces watching. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/3/) — Some kids had their phones out, filming. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/4/) — Lily marched up to them and said «stop it — would you want that video of you?», and two of them actually put their phones away. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/6/) — As the crowd thinned, the two boys had no one to perform for, and the shoving slowed. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/7/) — Meanwhile Sam and Freddie had run, together, to fetch the teacher on duty — going in a pair meant neither of them chickened out on the way. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/8/) — Kieran, at a different fight, laughed and cheered. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/9/) — Later he found out the boy had hit his head on the kerb and spent the night in hospital. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/10/) — Kieran couldn't sleep, and the next day he went quiet in a way nobody had seen. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/11/) — Laughing had felt like nothing at the time; afterwards it felt like being part of it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/12/) — Watchers who cheer are not just watchers. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/13/) — Bystanders have lots of better jobs. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/15/) — Lily and Sam helped up a girl who had been pushed over and stayed with her until she stopped shaking. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/16/) — And Jake, who used to start fights, stepped between two Year 4s and said «oi, pack it in, not worth it» — and because it was Jake, they did. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/18/) — A bystander is someone who sees something happening to other people. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/19/) — A crowd watching a fight makes it harder for the fighters to stop, because nobody wants to lose face. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/20/) — Chanting or cheering at a fight encourages it and makes the cheering people part of it. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/21/) — Filming a fight and sharing it can hurt and shame people, and can get the filmer in trouble. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/22/) — Fetching an adult quickly is one of the most useful things a bystander can do. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/23/) — Going for help in a pair is easier and makes it more likely you will actually do it. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/24/) — A blow or a fall onto a hard surface like a kerb can cause a serious head injury. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/25/) — Checking on someone who has been hurt or pushed, and staying with them, really helps them. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/26/) — A calm word from a friend can stop someone before a fight starts. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/27/) — Children should not step between two people who are actually hitting each other; getting an adult is safer. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/393-bystanders/28/) — Older children whom others respect can often calm younger ones with words alone. - ← previous: [Adults who help and adults who don't](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/392-adults-who-help-and-adults-who-dont/) - next →: [Making peace between the streets](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/394-making-peace-between-the-streets/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)