23. Which of the following is true about “Rube Goldberg Machines”?
(A) They appeared in Goldberg’s cartoon strips.
(B) They were copies of real machines invented by Professor Butt in Goldberg’s university.
(C) They were mostly used to accomplish complicated tasks.
(D) People use the term to refer to good machines that solve difficult problems.

Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg was born on July 4th 1883 in San Francisco. By the end of his lifetime in December 7th 1970, he was known as an inventor, sculptor, author, engineer and cartoonist. At a young age, he loved drawing, tracing描圖；臨摹 and being creative, but this was discouraged by his parents. In 1904, he graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He was then hired as an engineer by the city of San Francisco but eventually quit to become a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1907 he moved to New York where he worked for several newspapers. He soon became famous as an artist. 
Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg 於 1883 年 7 月 4 日出生於舊金山。 到 1970 年 12 月 7 日他生命的盡頭時，他已成為一名發明家、雕塑家、作家、工程師和漫畫家。 年幼時，他喜歡繪畫、描摹和發揮創造力，但遭到父母的阻撓。 1904 年，他畢業於加州大學伯克利分校，獲得工程學位。 隨後，他被舊金山市聘為工程師，但最終辭去工作，成為《舊金山紀事報》的體育漫畫家。 1907 年，他移居紐約，為多家報紙工作。 他很快就以藝術家的身份出名了。

His cartoon strips連環漫畫 were popular, but the work that gave him unforgettable lifelong fame was the character he created—Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. Using the character, he would illustrate inventions that later became known as the “Rube Goldberg Machine”. A “Rube Goldberg Machine” is an extremely complicated device that performs a very simple task in a complex, indirect間接 way. This is now used as an expression to describe any system that's confusing or complicated and came from Goldbergʼs illustrations of ridiculous machines.
他的連環漫畫很受歡迎，但讓他終生難忘的作品是他塑造的人物——Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts。 使用這個角色，他將展示後來被稱為“Rube Goldberg Machine”的發明。 “Rube Goldberg Machine”是一種極其複雜的設備，它以複雜、間接的方式執行非常簡單的任務。 這個詞現在被用作描述任何令人困惑或複雜的系統的表達，它來自Goldberg對荒謬機器的插圖。

-> Rube Goldberg Machines appeared in Goldberg’s cartoon strips.
Rube Goldberg Machines出現在Goldberg 的連環漫畫中

The first illustration showing a “Rube Goldberg Machine” was an Automatic Weight Reducing Machine in 1914 using components such as a donut, bomb, wax蠟, balloon and hot stove to trap an overweight person in a sound and food proof prison. The overweight person had to lose weight before freeing himself. He used many simple subjects and made them humorous yet very complicated. This included scratching insect bites, scrubbing擦洗 your back in a bath, opening a window, collecting mail and finding a ball. 
第一個展示“Rube Goldberg Machine”的插圖是 1914 年的自動減肥機，使用甜甜圈、炸彈、蠟、氣球和熱爐等組件將超重的人困在隔音和食物證明的監獄中。 超重的人必須在釋放自己之前減肥。 他使用了許多簡單的主題，使它們既幽默又非常複雜。 這包括抓撓昆蟲叮咬處、在浴缸裡擦洗背部、打開窗戶、收集郵件和尋找球。

Throughout his career, Goldberg was fascinated by the advancement of technology and thought it humorous that people either embraced the benefits technology brought or were unwilling to accept new technology as it seemingly increased dependency and laziness. He personally believed people preferred choosing a more difficult route instead of completing a goal simply and directly. As he said, “the machines are a symbol of manʼs capacity才能 for making maximum effort to achieve minimal results”. His inventions were interesting because he did the complete opposite of what most machines do—instead of making difficult things easy, he made easy things difficult.
在他的整個職業生涯中，Goldberg對技術的進步著迷，他認為人們要嘛接受技術帶來的好處，要嘛不願意接受新技術，因為它似乎增加了依賴性和懶惰，這很幽默。 他個人認為，人們更願意選擇難度更大的路線，而不是簡單直接地完成一個目標。 正如他所說，“這些機器象徵著人類付出最大努力獲得最小結果的能力”。 他的發明很有趣，因為他所做的與大多數機器所做的完全相反——不是讓困難的事情變得簡單，而是讓容易的事情變得困難。