When Do You 'Go Against the Grain'?

2024-03-17

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1
  • And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.
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  • Have you ever looked closely at a piece of wood? If you have, you might have noticed its beautiful grain.
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  • When talking about wood, grain describes the appearance of cell fibers in the wood.
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  • A wood's grain is important when choosing the right sort of wood for a project.
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  • Different kinds of wood have different grains, which affect their appearance, strength, and usefulness.
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  • Paying attention to a wood's grain helps you to know how to work with it.
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  • For example, if you are cutting a wood board with the grain, you would use a tool called a rip saw.
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  • If you are cutting across the grain, you would use a crosscut saw.
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  • Cutting against the grain is more difficult.
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  • If you work against the wood grain, you might tear out pieces of wood or even damage your tools.
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  • And that brings us to our expression: to go against the grain.
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  • If you go against the grain, you do something differently from what is normal or usual.
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  • An idea or action that goes against the grain is difficult to do or accept.
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  • Usually, it goes against a person's ideals, beliefs, or principles.
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  • If an idea or action goes against the grain, it is the opposite of what you believe is right or normal.
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  • You might find it difficult to accept.
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  • 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.
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  • Let's say a friend of yours is offered a sales job.
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  • To do the job well, he must convince people to buy things they don't need.
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  • He is a very honest man.
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  • So, for him this job goes against the grain.
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  • To go against the grain can also mean to do things differently from others.
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  • Sometimes we want to go against the grain.
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  • We don't want to do things the way everyone else does.
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  • Artists often try to go against the grain and ignore the common, popular trends of the day.
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  • Now, let's hear the expression used between two friends.
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  • A: Did you hear about Jenny taking that corporate banking job?
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  • B: I did! I'm really happy for her.
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  • A: Happy? You must be kidding. Jenny is an artist. In college, we used to protest against big banks.
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  • 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.
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  • A: I know. But a corporate job? Jenny? It just goes against the grain for her.
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  • B: Look, we need to support our friend. Anything less would go against the grain for me.
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  • And that's the end of this Words and Their Stories.
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  • Until next time ... I'm Anna Matteo.