Select faces as groups - just means going into face mode and selecting a bunch of faces

i also have Maya 4.5 for windows and Mac, and its a pretty good book for getting to know maya

now i dont really know what lighting up uv's is...but try searching on automatic UV mapping(edit polygons>texture)

as for selecting unwanted edges....you could try display>custom polygon disply ... and turn on backface culling...it basicly hides the part of the object that is not facing you so you cant select it