I would like the pieces of texts in the right column to be closer to the pieces of text in the left column. At the same time, I want the table to accommodate long pieces of text nicely, as it does now. One way to achieve this result would be to restrict the width of the left column, augment the width of the right column, and move the left margin of the right column to the left. But I do not know how to do it.
Here is a MWE of what I got so far:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{*{2}{p{.425\linewidth}}}
\toprule
first & second second second second second second second second second second\\
\midrule
third & fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth fourth \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Thanks for your help.
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{ l X }
...\end{tabularx}
(requires\usepackage{tabularx}
in your preamble).