Rome is recognized across the globe for its classical artwork, but recently the city's street art has been drawing attention. While many urban artists stick to painting murals（壁画），one Italian sculptor is resisting the trend with his wonderful works made from an unusual material. Andrea Gandini, a native of Rome in his early twenties, has been recognized for his wood carvings of old tree trunks scattered across the city's landscape.

Gandini's Trocomorto, or "dead trunk" project, began in 2018, when the artist ran out of sculpting clay. That's when he noticed the remains of an old tree stump in his neighborhood. He realized that Rome was full of potential canvases（画布）just waiting to be given a new life. "Bringing trees back to life" is exactly how Gandini and others describe his art.

Due to years of poor care by the city, many trees became diseased and had to be cut down. This resulted in lots of old stumps that degraded the streets of Rome, which were costly to remove. However, they have been a perfect canvas of Gandini, who has completed over 50 carvings across the city.

Gandini gives each old tree trunk a face and personality of its own. By recognizing each formerly living tree as individual, he hopes to give them some dignity in death and respect each of them with their own headstone of sorts. For those that can't make the trip to Rome, Gandini documents his works of art on Facebook.

Gandini's “dead trunk" project reminds us of what Auguste Rodin says, "There is no lack of beauty in the world, but a lack of eyes to find it." All is beautiful in the eyes of the artist, for his keen eye sees through the heart of all living things. To discover its character is to pierce its outer form and touch its inner truth. This "truth" is also "beauty".

Giant Panda Is No Longer Endangered

A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China's government is unwilling to accept the change, saying it did not view the status of the country's beloved symbol as any less serious.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report that the panda is now classified as a “vulnerable” instead of “endangered” species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China.【小题1】That is the result of work by Chinese agencies to carry out hunting bans and expand forest reserves.

In a statement, China's State Forestry Administration said that it doubted the classification change because pandas' natural habitats have been mainly separated by human causes.The animals live in small, isolated groups of as few as 10 pandas that struggle to reproduce and face the risk of disappearing altogether.If we relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas would still suffer a great loss.【小题2】Therefore, we're not being alarmist (危言耸听的) by continuing to emphasize the panda species' endangered status.

【小题3】John Howard, a senior official at World Society for the Protection of Animals, expressed his satisfaction over the effective measures taken by the Chinese government.The Chinese government and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) first established the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province in 1980.Wild panda numbers have since slowly rebounded as China cracked down on the skin trade.【小题4】

Over the last few decades, international groups and the Chinese government have worked to save wild pandas and breed them in face of their extinction.It is not surprising that the WWF, whose logo has been a panda since 1961, celebrated the panda's re-classification.【小题5】

As the world's resources become rarer because of continuing land development and the growing human population, the natural habitats of wild animals have continued to decrease. As a result, the survival of some species of wildlife is threatened. To help protect wildlife, a lot of practices should be carried out by environmentalist as well as the general public.

Create homes for species that are endangered because of losing their own natural habitats. Wildlife shelters should be developed, and habitats should be created in existing(现存的) national parks. Efforts(努力) should also be made to protect existing habits, such as providing food and water sources and limiting hunting. Breed(培育) endangered species in places such as zoos. Once the young animals grow up, they can be set free into the wild where they can continue to increase the population.

The general public may not realize that a species is endangered until it's too late. Educational programs making use of TV advertising and instructional meetings at national parks can be used to make the public know the situation.

The general public can help protect the wildlife by not hunting wild animals for sport or for a source of food. They should also stop supporting those who earn money from the illegal hunting of wild animals, such as hunters who kill animals for the only purpose of harvesting their body parts and selling them for money.

The public should avoid(避免) keeping wild animals as pets. This will limit the number of animals being tracked, trapped, sold and removed from their natural habitat.