To those who do contemplate making Oxford their starting-place, I would say, take your own boat — unless, of course, you can take someone else's without any possible danger of being found out. The boats that, as a rule, are let for hire on the Thames above Marlow, are very good boats. They are fairly water-tight; and so long as they are handled with care, they rarely come to pieces, or sink. There are places in them to sit down on, and they are complete with all the necessary arrangements — or nearly all — to enable you to row them and steer them.

But they are not ornamental (но они не служат украшением /реки/; ornamental — декоративный, служащий украшением, орнаментальный). The boat you hire up the river above Marlow is not the sort of boat in which you can flash about and give yourself airs (лодка, которую вы нанимаете на реке выше Марлоу, это не тот тип лодки, в которой можно красоваться и важничать). The hired up-river boat very soon puts a stop to any nonsense of that sort on the part of its occupants (взятая напрокат лодка очень быстро прекращает всякую подобную ерунду со стороны своих пассажиров; occupant — житель, обитатель; арендатор). That is its chief — one may say, its only recommendation (это ее главное — можно сказать, единственное достоинство; recommendation — рекомендация; положительный отзыв, сильная сторона).

The man in the hired up-river boat is modest and retiring (человек во взятой напрокат лодке — скромен и застенчив). He likes to keep on the shady side, underneath the trees (он предпочитает держаться на тенистой стороне, под деревьями), and to do most of his travelling early in the morning or late at night (и совершать большую часть своего путешествия рано утром или поздно вечером), when there are not many people about on the river to look at him (когда немного людей на реке могут увидеть его).

When the man in the hired up-river boat sees anyone he knows (когда человек во взятой напрокат лодке видит какого-нибудь знакомого: «кого-нибудь, кого знает»), he gets out on to the bank, and hides behind a tree (он выходит на берег и прячется за дерево).

ornamental [,:n'mentl] occupant ['kjupnt]

But they are not ornamental. The boat you hire up the river above Marlow is not the sort of boat in which you can flash about and give yourself airs. The hired up-river boat very soon puts a stop to any nonsense of that sort on the part of its occupants. That is its chief — one may say, its only recommendation.

The man in the hired up-river boat is modest and retiring. He likes to keep on the shady side, underneath the trees, and to do most of his travelling early in the morning or late at night, when there are not many people about on the river to look at him.

When the man in the hired up-river boat sees anyone he knows, he gets out on to the bank, and hides behind a tree.

I was one of a party who hired an up-river boat one summer, for a few days' trip (я был в одной компании, которая взяла напрокат лодку как-то летом для поездки на несколько дней). We had none of us ever seen the hired up-river boat before (никто из нас никогда прежде не видел наемной лодки); and we did not know what it was when we did see it (и мы не поняли, что это такое, когда увидели ее).

We had written for a boat — a double sculling skiff (мы заказали письменно лодку — четырехвесельный ялик; to write for — быть корреспондентом; выписать, сделать письменный заказ; skiff — скиф; ялик /небольшая двух- или четырехвесельная лодка/); and when we went down with our bags to the yard, and gave our names, the man said (а когда мы пришли с чемоданами на лодочную станцию и назвали наши имена/назвались, лодочник сказал):