Part of a piece of news from El Pais. Orange is the daughter of a tangerine and the mother of the grapefruit If you have an orange or another citric fruit near, just look at it. Behind that piece of fruit there is an epic story that reminds of those Alexander Magnus battles, the Islam expansion, Christian Crusaders military campaigns, Jews´ diaspora or America discover. That piece of fruit you are looking at is a humanity story book and it has reached your hand thanks to a huge number of conquers and reconquests and a scientific battle through the last centuries. "The ancestor of all the citric trees lived eight million of years ago in Southern Asia, explained the biologist Manuel Talon, who have just drawn the most powerful genealogical tree about this kind of fruit trees. The matrimonies, simplified, can be drawn as if they were Buendia family members in 'One hundred years of solitude'. "Sweet orange is the daughter of a pummelus (mother of the grapefruit) and a tangerine", told Talon, director of the Genomica Center of the Agrarian Investigations´ Valencia Institute, which locates that relation in the modern Western China 30.000 years ago. In that cross of species, the tangerine was the father. It was a wild tangerine, sour and plenty of seeds, uneatable, which would sent its 'sperm', the masculine pollen, throught the wind to the mother´s flowers, a pummelus. As the result of that union, it would have been born the first orange, which, as Talon speculates, would have been noticed by a chinese farmer, who would have carried on that farming by grafting trees. Milleniums later, at the end of the XV century, the sweet orange arrived Spain with the help of the portuguese and italian traders. The biologic team has studied the genoma of 30 citric species. Specifically, scientists have read the cloroplastos DNA, a kind of vegetal cells organs which carries genetical information inherited from the mother. The research results will be published now in the Molecular Biology and Evolution Magazine. The original text is here: http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/04/14/ciencia/1429035387_315915.html

Things to do in my town Hello, mates. I live in the North of Spain in a town named Ponferrada. I wasn´t born here, but I´ve been living here for six years. Ponferrada is a little town located near Galicia and Asturias. It is the capital city of El Bierzo, an area that belongs to Leon region. El Bierzo is full of beautiful mountains and it has a very rich cultural, architectural and natural hesitage, so you can do a lot of different things here, like visiting monuments, trekking and climbing the mountains, enjoying a good restaurant or even go to the theatre or the cinema. Ponferrada has as several hotels and shopping center where you can buy anything you need. In El Bierzo you can visit Las Medulas, a World Heritage Site, where you can see the arqueological remains of a roman gold mine. But there is a huge number of interesting sites that you can visit here, in addition to the good gastronomy and marvellous wine.

What do I usually do to improve my English? I am learning English. I go attend classes two days a week with a native teacher in a language academy. I have a lot of grammar and vocabulary resources and I usually work with them the rest of the week. Besides, I train my listenings doing some exercices online (there is a lot of websites which can help). One of the most enjoyable homework is watching series and films en English. Cable TV offers a lot of possibilities, because you can change the language and subtitles. However, in almost all series and films they speak American English and the accent and even some words and expressions are different from British English. I would like to improve my conversation skills with a live speaking. I think it is the best way of learning a language. And nowadays we can do that for free, for example in Skype. Italki is a good opportunity for me to find someone whome speak. What do you think about that? What do you do to improve your English?

A nice day Today the weather is very good here in Spain. Spring is nearby and sunshine announce that warm temperatures are going to come. In spite of that fact, a bit of cold wind doesn´t allow anyone to walk trought the town withouth wearing a coat. I live in North Spain, therefore temperatures are lower than in the South. Actually, I would like Summer to come, because I´m looking forward to say goodbye to all my coats and scarfs.

A short tale That morning he woke up with a frigthening feeling. As if the whole world were waiting for his decision. Happy day or bad day. Move forward or give up. The first step would decide it. Slowly, he stood up. He would never remember which foot was the first in touching the frozen floor, because the only thing that will remain in his head forever would be that song. It was a strange morning trill he couldn´t recognise. And the decision was made. That day was the first day of his new life.

Hello, Italki community Hello, Italki community. This is my first post and I want to write something about me. I am a spanish woman. I was born in the North of Spain, where I live nowadays. As a journalist, I am used to write correctly using good grammar and a lot of vocabulary, so I think I could be a good spanish teacher for you. I am studing english because I want to get my First Certificate in English (First), but I need to improve my conversational skills. Do you want to learn with me?