We got to chatting about our rowing experiences this morning (этим утром мы начали беседовать о нашем гребном опыте; to get to — приниматься), and to recounting stories of our first efforts in the art of oarsmanship (и рассказывать истории первых попыток = шагов в искусстве гребли). My own earliest boating recollection is of five of us contributing threepence each (мои самые ранние воспоминания о плавании на лодке — о том, как пятеро нас /мальчишек/ пожертвовали три пенса каждый; to contribute — делать пожертвования, взносы; вносить вклад) and taking out a curiously constructed craft on the Regent's Park lake (и спустили странно сконструированное судно на озеро в Риджент-Парке; to take out — вынимать, вытаскивать, выводить), drying ourselves subsequently, in the park-keeper's lodge (высушиваясь впоследствии в домике паркового сторожа; lodge — домик; сторожка у ворот; помещение привратника, садовника).

contributing [kn'trbju:t] subsequently ['sbskwntl]

We gave him all the regular ones — the time-honoured lies that have done duty up the river with every boating-man for years past — and added seven entirely original ones that we had invented for ourselves, including a really quite likely story, founded, to a certain extent, on an all but true episode, which had actually happened in a modified degree some years ago to friends of ours — a story that a mere child could have believed without injuring itself, much.

And that young man mocked at them all, and wanted us to repeat the feats then and there, and to bet us ten to one that we didn't.

We got to chatting about our rowing experiences this morning, and to recounting stories of our first efforts in the art of oarsmanship. My own earliest boating recollection is of five of us contributing threepence each and taking out a curiously constructed craft on the Regent's Park lake, drying ourselves subsequently, in the park-keeper's lodge.

After that, having acquired a taste for the water (после этого, пристрастившись к воде; to acquire a taste for something — пристраститься, войти во вкус; to acquire — приобретать, получать), I did a good deal of rafting in various suburban brickfields (я много плавал на плотах по различным загородным /прудам/ при кирпичных заводах; suburban — пригородный, загородный; brickfield — кирпичный завод) — an exercise providing more interest and excitement than might be imagined (занятие, дающее больше интереса и волнения = более интересное и захватывающее, чем можно представить; exercise — упражнение, занятие), especially when you are in the middle of the pond and the proprietor of the materials of which the raft is constructed (особенно когда вы находитесь посереди пруда, а владелец материалов, из которых сделан плот) suddenly appears on the bank, with a big stick in his hand (внезапно появляется на берегу с большой палкой в руке).