A contraction is a shortened form of a word. Only one of the words you’ve underlined is a contraction (haven’t). Contractions are words like: didn’t, couldn’t, hadn’t, I’m, I’ve, etc.
A verb phrase consists of a ‘helping’ verb which comes before the main verb. Helping verbs include words like is, are, were, was, be, been, have, had, do, did, can, could, will, would, etc.
So the verb phrase for question 4 would be ‘They had feared’ or ‘They’d feared’ - ‘had’ is the helping verb, which comes before ‘feared’, the main verb.
Paine says that it is irrational and absurd for such a huge amount of land with practically unlimited resources, to be dominated by such a small island. So basically he said that the argument lacks evidence and ethos
