Grammer
how do i tell the simple past tense apart from the past continuous tense

The main difference between past simple and past continuous tense is that:

For example: John called his friend yesterday.

Example: I was reading a book all day yesterday.

We used past continuous tense because the action of reading lasted for some time (a whole day in this case).

a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

: ) most likely not the right answer but why not put a good dad joke up in there?

the guest is my guess