Textbook: Solomons 10th Ed. (2009)

Note that some textbooks don't draw EAS electrophiles with formal positive charges.

Some textbooks instead draw electrophiles with partial positive charges and a leaving group. It's just a convention, and doesn't affect the product of an EAS reaction. See the problem 595 for an explanation of the difference.

(This is similar to problem 569, which involved the allylic position.)

Notice that arrows always go from high electron density to low electron density. So for negatively charged species, the arrow starts at the lone pair. For positively charged species, the arrow starts at the double bond and goes towards the positive charge.

(Radical resonance uses hooks instead of arrows and so is a little different.)

There are separate explanations for SN1 and SN2.

S_N1: The S_N1 mechanism involves a carbocation intermediate, and both allylic and benzylic carbocations have resonance, which increases the stability of their carbocations, and speeds up the rate of S_N1 reaction.

S_N2: This explanation is less obvious, and is probably only mentioned in passing in your orgo textbook, if at all. 

The pi systems present in allylic and benzylic halides are able to overlap with the pi orbitals of the nucleophile and the leaving group in the 5-coordinate transition state of an S_N2 reaction. This orbital overlap lowers the energy of the transition state (which stabilizes it), and so increases the rate of S_N2 reaction.

There are other possible explanations as well (Which also vary by textbook). For one, an allylic halide is less sterically hindered than an alkyl halide (less hydrogens sticking out in 3D).

Also, the carbons on the double bond of allyl and benzyl compounds are sp² hybridized, and so are more electronegative than sp³ carbons. So the sp² carbons pull alway some electron density from the alpha carbon (the carbon attached to the leaving group), making it more electrophilic, and thus increasing S_N2 reactivity.

Short answer: -NO₂ is an meta director because the cyclohexadienyl intermediates that result from meta addtition are more stable than those that result from ortho or para addition.

Long answer: Addition at both the ortho or para positions lead to a cyclohexadienyl cation that contains two adjacent positive charges. This is very unstable, and so addition at the ortho or para positions is not favored.

The cyclohexadienyl cations that result from meta addition don't have this problem.

This will be the base for any substituent that has a positive charge (or partial positive charge). So -NO₂, -C(O)R, -CF₃, -NH₃⁺, -CN, and -SO₃R are all meta directors.

Electrophilic substitution at C-2 leads to a carbocation intermediate with three resonance forms, while substitution at C-3 leads to a carbocation intermediate with only two resonance forms.

The C-2 intermediate has more resonance forms than the C-3 intermediate, and so is more stable. Therefore, EAS occurs at C-2.

This is a good synthesis to know, because vinyl benzene is a good starting point for many synthesis problems you will encounter down the road.

An ethyl group can be added to benzene via Friedel-Crafts alkylation. 

To add that alkene, we you will have to do some sort of elimination reaction. The easiest way to do this is via bromination. Free radical bromination (with NBS or Br₂/hν) will add a bromine to the position of the most stable radical, which is the benzylic position (due to resonance).

Then adding a strong base like potassium tert-butoxide will do an E2 reaction to form the alkene.

a) The species on the left are much more stable than the species on the right because they have complete octets.

Nitrogen is less electronegative than oxygen, so a positive nitrogen (with a full octect) is more stable than a positive oxygen; oxygen is electronegative and so doesn't "like" being positive (have low electron density). 

The carbocation and the "nitrocation" are both very unstable because they only have 6 valence electrons. Because nitrogen is more electronegative than carbon, the nitrocation is even less stable than the carbocation, because its worse at handling a positive charge.

b) The cation intermediates that result from substitution at C-3 only contain carbocations, while the intermdiates from C-2 or C-4 substitution contain a "nitrocation," which is less stable than a regular carbocation, and so are not favored. So pyridine undergoes EAS reactions at C-3.

One more note: For substitution at C-2 and C-4, it's tempting to draw a resonance form where the positive charge is on the nitrogen, which is flanked by two double bonds. But this cyclic compound is too strained to exist, and so doesn't contribute to this analysis.