Answer from cs61c-ck (Allen Lee 16583554) for Question 2
C has if, while, do while, for, goto, based on predicates like equality, greater than, less than.

MIPS has bne, beq, with labels to make decisions.  It also has unconditional jump statements such as j and jr.

MIPS has fewer instructions because it's closer to the hardware. The designers want to keep hardware simple; if they can emulate if, while, do while, and for with simply bne, beq, labels, and jumps, there's no need to hardwire them - it'd only slow the hardware down.