Controlling LaTeX column flow

Question

What I'm trying to do: I have a page that consists of pairs of two sentences each. The pairs are separated by a whole line break. My problem is that when I have an odd number of pairs, the second sentence will automatically be placed on the next column.

How can I use LaTeX to make block structures that multicol does not ignore, to keep the two sentences together? If there's better code to solve this problem, or a better column implementation (though I don't believe I can use \twocolumn in the document declaration), please post it.

My current code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{multicol}

\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{\baselineskip}

\newcommand{\pair}[2]{
 \emph{#1}\\*
 #2

}

\begin{document}

  \begin{multicols}{2}

   \pair{Sentence 1.}{Sentence 2.}
   \pair{Sentence 2 (pair 2).}{Sentence 2 (pair 2).}
   \pair{The last pair, first sentence.}{Last sentence.}

  \end{multicols}

\end{document}

This generates: http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3444/columns.png . The second pair is what I am trying to avoid.

Answer 1

Try this:

\newcommand{\pair}[2]{%
\parbox{\hsize}{\emph{#1}\\*#2}\par}