Answer from cs61c-ce (aretha samuel 15797004) for Question 2
C has the while, do while, for, case/switch loops, and if/else statements that are involved in making decisions.  MIps has 3: sllt, beq, bne, and the fixed value of 0 create relative conditions.  The designers didn't include more instruction because that would go against their simplicity mantras, and thus take up more time and decrease spped.