Sentence:  Earlier , this woman had been so filled with a chaotic variety of introjects that at times , when she was in her room alone , it would sound to a passerby as though there <WSD>were</WSD> several different persons in the room , as she would vocalize in various kinds of voice . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  happen, occur, take place; this was during the visit to my parents' house"