When Do You 'Go Against the Grain'?

When Do You 'Go Against the Grain'?

　　And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.

　　Have you ever looked closely at a piece of wood? If you have, you might have noticed its beautiful grain.

　　When talking about wood, grain describes the appearance of cell fibers¹ in the wood. A wood's grain is important when choosing the right sort of wood for a project. Different kinds of wood have different grains, which affect their appearance, strength, and usefulness.

　　Paying attention to a wood's grain helps you to know how to work with it. For example, if you are cutting a wood board with the grain, you would use a tool called a rip² saw. If you are cutting across the grain, you would use a crosscut saw.

　　Cutting against the grain is more difficult. If you work against the wood grain, you might tear out pieces of wood or even damage your tools.

　　And that brings us to our expression: to go against the grain.

　　If you go against the grain, you do something differently from what is normal or usual.

　　An idea or action that goes against the grain is difficult to do or accept. Usually, it goes against a person's ideals, beliefs, or principles.

　　If an idea or action goes against the grain, it is the opposite of what you believe is right or normal. You might find it difficult to accept. In some situations, it takes courage to go against the grain of what others are saying or doing and stand up for what you believe in.

　　Let's say a friend of yours is offered a sales job. To do the job well, he must convince people to buy things they don't need. He is a very honest man. So, for him this job goes against the grain.

　　To go against the grain can also mean to do things differently from others. Sometimes we want to go against the grain. We don't want to do things the way everyone else does. Artists often try to go against the grain and ignore the common, popular trends of the day.

　　Now, let's hear the expression used between two friends.

　　A: Did you hear about Jenny taking that corporate³ banking⁴ job?

　　B: I did! I'm really happy for her.

　　A: Happy? You must be kidding. Jenny is an artist. In college, we used to protest against big banks.

　　B: I know we did. But life is different now. We're older and have bills to pay. And I think Jenny wants to send her little sister to college.

　　A: I know. But a corporate job? Jenny? It just goes against the grain for her.

　　B: Look, we need to support our friend. Anything less would go against the grain for me.

　　And that's the end of this Words and Their Stories.

　　Words in This Story

　　board –n. a flat piece of wood used for building things

　　convince –v. to persuade a person to do or believe something

　　trend –n. the way things are going; a general direction of change

1 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

2 rip   

n.拉裂，破绽，激流，浪荡子；vt.撕裂，激昂地说，贬损；vi.裂开，仓促地冲过...

参考例句：

• He had seen the rip in the book.他看到了书里的裂缝。
• I tried not to rip the paper as I unwrapped it.我把纸打开的时候，尽量不把它撕破。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

4 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。