I am a Chinese plain TeX user and also a beginner. Now I encounter a hard question, that is
I must write some numbered English paragraphs at the left column and its corresponding Chinese translations at the right column which have the same number with the English one. The first lines of the English paragraph and its corresponding Chinese translations should be located at the same horizontal line.
Here is an example if I can't explain this question clearly:

My method to solve this problem is using \halign with two \vtop, but it can't span pages or produce overfull, underfull \vbox.
\newcount\mycount
\mycount=1
\bigskip
\halign{\tabskip=.5in
\vtop{\hsize=3in\noindent\number\mycount.\enspace#}&
\tabskip=0pt\vtop{\hsize=3in
\noindent\romannumeral\mycount.\enspace#\global\advance\mycount by1}\cr
...}
so ugly it is :-(
Anyone else has a better solution?
