[two_third] This is possibly the girliest essay ever written, with crystal, dolls, and pretty colors described with great rapture. The writer is describing a gift given to her by a friend. 

The sentence structure never gets too complex to follow in this, so if you're an intermediate reader feeling up for a lot of new words, go for it. But this essay is a little bit new-word heavy, so unless you are fairly good with descriptive vocabulary, so don't expect an uninterrupted read. I love this essay for its use of unusual color words, like "glistening yellow", "vibrant red", and "transparent".

In terms of the item the author describes, it's a bit hard to tell from the Chinese text that the writer is describing multiple crystal dolls inside of crystal balls in a crystal bottle until you get partway into the description, and while the girl paints a very vivid picture of this pretty bauble, I don't know that I've ever seen anything like it in real life. It sounds like the crystal figurine version of Inception. Anyway, without further ado:

The Chinese title is: 　水晶球

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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
水晶- [pinyin]shui3 jing1[/pinyin] - Crystal
一闪一闪 - [pinyin]yi1 shan3 yi1 shan3[/pinyin] - Twinkle
各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - Each is different / each has its own 
盈 - [pinyin]ying2[/pinyin] - Filled 
黄澄澄 - [pinyin]huang2 deng4 deng4[/pinyin] - Glistening yellow
红通通- [pinyin]hong2 tong1 tong1[/pinyin] - Vibrant Red
透明 - [pinyin]tou4 ming2[/pinyin] - Transparent
笛子 - [pinyin]di2 zi5[/pinyin] - Bamboo flute
五彩缤纷 - [pinyin]wu3 cai3 bin1 fen1[/pinyin] - A wild profusion of color
映衬 - [pinyin]ying4 chen4[/pinyin] - To set off by contrast
夺目- [pinyin]duo2 mu4[/pinyin] - Dazzle the eyes
小巧 - [pinyin]xiao3 qiao3[/pinyin] - Small and exquisite
玲珑 - [pinyin]ling2 long2[/pinyin] - The sound of clinking jewels
脚尖 - [pinyin]jiao3 jian1[/pinyin] - On tiptoe
轻盈 - [pinyin]qing1 ying2[/pinyin] - Graceful, lithe
飞舞 - [pinyin]fei1 wu3[/pinyin] - Flitter, dance in the breeze
小精灵 - [pinyin]xiao3 jing1 ling2[/pinyin] - Elf
舞姿 - [pinyin]wu3 zi1[/pinyin] - Dancer's posture and movement
九霄云外 - [pinyin]jiu3 xiao1 yun2 wai4[/pinyin] - Beyond the topmost clouds [lit: dropped into the clouds and the nine heavens]
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<div id="chinesetext">
在我生日的时候，朋友送给了我一个小小的“<strong>水晶</strong>瓶”，我非常喜欢它，爱不释手。

这个“水晶瓶”<strong>一闪一闪</strong>，漂亮极了！在“水晶瓶”里有一只只亮晶晶“水晶球”。那“水晶球”形状<strong>各异</strong>，颜色不一。紫<strong>盈</strong>盈的是星星形的，<strong>黄澄澄</strong>的是足球形的，<strong>红通通</strong>的是皮包形的，<strong>透明</strong>发亮的是<strong>笛子</strong>形的。这些美丽的“水晶球”在<strong>五彩缤纷</strong>的灯光的<strong>映衬</strong>下，显得更<strong>夺目</strong>耀眼。

在“水晶球”里，有一个小小的“舞台”，在这个<strong>小巧</strong><strong>玲珑</strong>的“舞台”上，有一个“舞蹈家”——水晶娃娃。水晶娃娃的手一晃一晃的，伴随着美妙的音乐，立着<strong>脚尖</strong>旋转起来，多像一个<strong>轻盈飞舞的小精灵</strong>。我看着，看着，沉醉在这优美的<strong>舞姿</strong>当中，我不由自主地也跟它跳起舞来。在这个时候，所有的烦恼全都抛到<strong>九霄云外</strong>去了。

可是有一次我不知怎么了，突然间不喜欢这个水晶球了，还把他随便放在衣橱里一直到这位好朋友转学了以后才知道它的重要性.

我喜欢这个“水晶瓶”，因为它陪我渡过了美好的童年，它将一直陪着我走下去……
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On my birthday, my friend gave me a little "crystal bottle", I really liked it, loved it so much I never wanted to part with it. 

This "crystal bottle" twinkled very beautifully! Inside the crystal bottle, there were shining "crystal balls". Those crystal balls were all shaped differently, and were all different colors. The one filled with a purple color was shaped like a star, the glistening yellow one was shaped like a football, the bright red one was shaped like a handbag, the shining clear one was shaped like a flute. These beautiful "crystal balls" contrasted with each other in a radiant profusion of light, dazzling to behold.

Inside each of the crystal balls, there was a very small "dancing stage" and on each exquisitely small, clinking stage there was a "dancer" -- a crystal doll. The crystal dolls' hands flashed, accompanying wonderful music, and [the dolls] rotated while standing on tiptoe, like graceful little elves dancing in the breeze. I watched and watched, intoxicated by the dancer's elegant movements, and I couldn't help but begin dancing with them. Whenever I watched them, all of my worries dropped away, vanishing beyond the topmost clouds. 

But one day, and I don't know why, I suddenly no longer liked to look at the crystal balls, and I put them somewhere in my closet, and it was only when that friend moved to a different school that I realized their importance. 

I like this crystal bottle because it was with me as I passed through a beautiful childhood, and it will always be with me as I go through life.
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