1. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left -- all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.

　　【译文】例如，阿斯旺大坝阻挡了尼罗河的洪水，但埃及也失去了洪水退去后留下的肥沃淤泥——这一切换来得是一个使人们疾病丛生的巨大水库。如今水库里积满了淤泥，基本上无法发电。

　　【析句】句子的主干是the Aswan Dam stopped...but deprived ...。stopped和deprived是有转折关系的并列成分。that floods left作fertile silt的定语从句。破折号后all in return ...是省略了"引导词+be"的非限制性定语从句即(which was)all in return for...。非限制性定语从句中又有which引导的定语从句，which is now ...silt修饰a giant reservoir.后面的that构成so...that...的固定搭配。

　　2. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube.

　　【译文】本周在文明的欧洲腹地，斯洛伐克人和匈牙利人为了多瑙河上的一处水坝所引起的争端，差一点就派出了部队。

　　【析句】stop short of 意为“突然停止；未到达”，引申义相当于be close to.英语中名词结构应用十分广泛，可与所对应的的名词互换，使行文简洁生动。如本句中的in their contention over...就等于contend over(for)“争夺，斗争”。

　　3. Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam.

　　【译文】同时，世界银行已经贷款给印度建造纳尔达玛大坝，简直是错上加错。

　　【析句】这句话中两个单词用的很好，一个是go-ahead。give go-ahead to do sth意为“允许、批准做某事”，比起allow sb to do sth更加形象生动。另一个是wrong-headed，意为“固执己见的，坚持错误的”，与go-ahead形似，前后呼应。