August 26, 1984

LONG ISLAND SOUND, a body of water that has received little detailed study, will be monitored to identify sources of pollution under a Federal program to begin this fall. Though at $1 million the dollar amount for the program is small, it may lead to preventive actions that can tap Federal money that is available for cleaning up coastal sounds and bays. The monitoring program will be administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. ''Given the enormous economic benefits and the quality of life the Sound gives us, it behooves us to make a modest investment to protect the water,'' said Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, a sponsor of the legislation that established the program. ''It is far more difficult to rectify damage than to avoid it.''

The colonel and the peasant stared into the dark, listening to the murmur of soldiers settling into bivouac. A soldier had toppled a hen from a tree branch with a slingshot, and the officer and farmer were waiting for their chicken dinner. The colonel asked if people in Joateca, a town in the northern province of Morazan, supported the left. ''Yes,'' the old man replied. ''Many?'' the colonel inquired.

It's been a long while since Hollywood abandoned its traditional model for relations between the sexes: the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl romance, followed by a middle-aged period devoted, happily or otherwise, to intense domesticity. It's even been a while since, in the early 70's, changing perceptions of men's and women's societal roles left Hollywood increasingly unable to deal with romantic relationships at all. Hollywood's bewilderment in a period of vigorous social change brought about movies in which the lovers never quite fell in love, or the kinds of working-woman stories in which Jane Fonda (as she did in ''The China Syndrome'') came home alone to a pet turtle and an answering machine. The silence on the subject of sexual relations has been prolonged and uneasy. But it now appears to be drawing to a close.

Seeking to solidify support behind his underdog candidacy, Walter F. Mondale today conferred with 15 Democratic governors and set a meeting for Tuesday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders. Political associates of Mr. Jackson said the civil rights leader, who attracted record numbers of black voters to the polls in the primaries, appeared to have settled his differences with Mr. Mondale. They said they expected him to announce that he would campaign extensively for the Democratic ticket in the fall. Complaints of Insulation Mr. Mondale's meeting with 15 of the nation's 35 Democratic governors today followed complaints that his campaign staff insulated him and that he was closed off from the advice of other Democrats.

While the Hamptons on Long Island's South Fork have long been known as chic summer retreats, vacationers are becoming more familiar with the pleasures of the villages along the North Fork on Long Island Sound. To meet what it sees as a growing demand for vacation housing there, a development group is building Stirling Cove, a 48-unit condominium colony on a 5-acre site on Stirling Harbor in Greenport.