TASK DEFINITION: In this task you will be given a text passage from a trivia quiz. You should choose the category this question belongs to from these categories: History, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, Literature. You can only choose one category, so if in doubt, please choose the closest match.
PROBLEM: A maximum independent set for this data structure can be found in linear time by adding alternating levels. In this structure, any two vertices or nodes must be connected by a single simple path, and thus it is connected and acyclic. By using (*) union-find with disjoint sets, one type of this structure containing all the vertices of a connected graph can be constructed. One variety of this data structure can be used to easily implement a binary search. This structure also comes in red-black and self-balancing-binary varieties. For 10 points, identify this data structure from computer science, a hierarchical graph in which "leaf" nodes ultimately flow from a "root" node.

SOLUTION: Science

PROBLEM: It is equal to the enthalpy change minus the temperature times the entropy change. Under standard conditions, it is also equal to negative R T times the natural log of K, where R is the gas law constant, T is the absolute temperature, and K is the equilibrium constant for the reaction; thus a high negative value indicates a forward-going reaction. FTP, identify this quantity, named for a Yale chemist, which is a measure of the spontaneity of a reaction.

SOLUTION: Science

PROBLEM: One of this authors stories consists of a womans letter to her abusive husband relating a dream about the titular blemish on her back. One of his novels finds a man recalling his life as he sleeps next to six titular virgins, and in another novel a young war veteran beats up his mistress in an attempt to force an abortion. Uragami reports on a match between Shusai and Otake in The Master of Go, but better-known is a novel about an affair between the businessman Shimamura and the geisha Komako at a hot springs in western Japan, Snow Country. FTP name this author, also known for a work centering around the tea ceremony, A Thousand Cranes.

SOLUTION:
Literature