騷客。眼迷離。

Which is right?

□ 1. The terrorists exploded the buildings close to the city center.

□ 2. The terrorists blew up the buildings close to the city center.

   1. The terrorists exploded the buildings close to the city center.

○2. The terrorists blew up the buildings close to the city center.

explode為及物動詞時，其受詞為引爆之武器，而非武器針對之目標，故可說The terrorists exploded their bombs....，若受詞為武器針對之目標時應用blow up。當不及物動詞時，explode與blow up則可相互取代，如The bombs explode / blew up immediately.

"Explode" can be a transitive verb, but if so, its object is a weapon, not the target of that weapon. Therefore, it is possible to say, "The terrorists exploded their bombs...". If the grammatical object it the target, we should use "blow up". "Explode" and "blow up" are interchangeable when they are used intransitively, e.g. "The bombs explode / blew up immediately".