Cities reflect urban planning. They are all laid out with major roads running north and south.

The statement is not true. Not all cities are laid out with major roads running north and south, this type or urban planning is more common in modern cities like those of the United States.

Older cities like many in Europe are laid out in different ways. For example, Paris has a series of "rings": large roads that circle the city, from close to the city core to the outskirts. Other cities have large historic centers where the layout is very irregular.

it repeats in the format of each sentence "the gods [blank]"

i also see that they are way better humans.

the effect of the ming leaders banning ships with more than two masts was that there was no further construction of ships masts, because there was a surplus. ming emperors disallowed foreign exploration