What does this contradiction demonstrate about the Wife of Bath's views on the relationship between men and
women?

to and without are prepositions, so a, b, and d are prepositional phrases. the adverb phrase is c, about the surprise.

explanation:

the passage can be best described as: "the british legislature extended an unwarranted jurisdiction".

we can say that because the text clearly states how the people of the colonies warned the british about their excessive desire to rule over them, without taking into consideration the difficulties their brothers had experienced in america: they struggled to establish the colonies, to adapt to new types of weather, fight with the natives, etc., and how they now see (or then saw) the only way out was to cut all ties with the british, since they ignored the people's petitions.