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A short first-person essay about a kid lighting firecrackers with his parents. I went back and forth on whether to classify this as "beginner" or "intermediate". It's easier than most of my intermediate stuff, but it's got a tighter density of higher-level words than my beginner stuff. But it's only a few sentences long. I finally settled on "Intermediate", but if you're beginner level and you're willing to walk through it word-by-word and puzzle it out, you may be able to get it.
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This isn't really an essay, per se. The Chinese have a different word for this type of "what I did that day" article: they call it 记事 (a record of events, like a diary) or 叙事 (a narrative). The weirdest part about this, I think, is the part where the kid says he smokes a cigarette his dad gave him. How old is this child? The rest of the piece makes it sound like he's about 7-10? 
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<h4>放花炮</h4>

今天晚上，我和爸爸妈妈一起<strong>放花炮</strong>。 爸爸用上<strong>打火机</strong>点上一根<strong>香烟</strong>，我拿着烟，<strong>吸</strong>了几口后就开始放花炮。我点了一个，花炮<strong>喷出五颜六色</strong>的的<strong>火苗</strong>，真是太美丽了！<strong>冲天炮</strong>太<strong>危险</strong>了，我不敢放，爸爸帮我放，我只在旁边看。 不一会儿，花炮放完了，我们就高高兴兴地回家了。

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This evening, my mother father and I set off fireworks together. Father used a lighter to light a cigarette, I took the cigarette and after a few puffs we began lighting the fireworks. I light one, and the firework sprayed multicolor flames, so beautiful! Rockets are too dangerous, I don't dare light them, so father helped me do it, and I stood beside and watched. Soon after, the fireworks were all gone, and we happily returned home. 

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