Problem: Question: "What is the small structure located above the brainstem?"  Context: "The SCN projects to a set of areas in the hypothalamus, brainstem, and midbrain that are involved in implementing sleep-wake cycles. An important component of the system is the reticular formation, a group of neuron-clusters scattered diffusely through the core of the lower brain. Reticular neurons send signals to the thalamus, which in turn sends activity-level-controlling signals to every part of the cortex. Damage to the reticular formation can produce a permanent state of coma."  Answer:

A: thalamus


Problem: Question: "What was going on in Eastern Europe?"  Context: "The geographical regions in which Iranian languages were spoken were pushed back in several areas by newly neighbouring languages. Arabic spread into some parts of Western Iran (Khuzestan), and Turkic languages spread through much of Central Asia, displacing various Iranian languages such as Sogdian and Bactrian in parts of what is today Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In Eastern Europe, mostly comprising the territory of modern-day Ukraine, southern European Russia, and parts of the Balkans, the core region of the native Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans had been decisively been taken over as a result of absorption and assimilation (e.g. Slavicisation) by the various Proto-Slavic population of the region, by the 6th century AD. This resulted in the displacement and extinction of the once predominant Scythian languages of the region. Sogdian's close relative Yaghnobi barely survives in a small area of the Zarafshan valley east of Samarkand, and Saka as Ossetic in the Caucasus, which is the sole remnant of the once predominant Scythian languages in Eastern Europe proper and large parts of the North Caucasus. Various small Iranian languages in the Pamirs survive that are derived from Eastern Iranian."  Answer:

A: Slavicisation


Problem: Question: "What might bring together  white, black, and Indian teens?"  Context: "New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. In North American cities, social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of "post-denominational Judaism" often bring together younger Jews of diverse ethnic backgrounds. In recent years, there has been increased interest in Kabbalah, which many Ashkenazi Jews study outside of the Yeshiva framework. Another trend is the new popularity of ecstatic worship in the Jewish Renewal movement and the Carlebach style minyan, both of which are nominally of Ashkenazi origin."  Answer:

A: post-denominational Judaism


Problem: Question: "What was a rejection of the public?"  Context: "The Epicureans and the Cynics rejected public offices and civic service, which amounted to a rejection of the polis itself, the defining institution of the Greek world. Epicurus promoted atomism and an asceticism based on freedom from pain as its ultimate goal. Cynics such as Diogenes of Sinope rejected all material possessions and social conventions (nomos) as unnatural and useless. The Cyrenaics meanwhile, embraced hedonism, arguing that pleasure was the only true good. Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, taught that virtue was sufficient for eudaimonia as it would allow one to live in accordance with Nature or Logos. Zeno became extremely popular, the Athenians set up a gold statue of him and Antigonus II Gonatas invited him to the Macedonian court. The philosophical schools of Aristotle (the Peripatetics of the Lyceum) and Plato (Platonism at the Academy) also remained influential. The academy would eventually turn to Academic Skepticism under Arcesilaus until it was rejected by Antiochus of Ascalon (c. 90 BCE) in favor of Neoplatonism. Hellenistic philosophy, had a significant influence on the Greek ruling elite. Examples include Athenian statesman Demetrius of Phaleron, who had studied in the lyceum; the Spartan king Cleomenes III who was a student of the Stoic Sphairos of Borysthenes and Antigonus II who was also a well known Stoic. This can also be said of the Roman upper classes, were Stoicism was dominant, as seen in the Meditations of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and the works of Cicero."  Answer:

A:
The Epicureans and the Cynics rejected public offices and civic service