We were desolated to hear the news of death.
desolate是感到凄凉的意思，请问老师，为何要用被动而不是主动呢？
由于动词desolate的意思是使人长期感到忧伤 to make feel very sad and lonely for a long time — usually used as desolated 即人是这个动词的宾语。假如要表示某事使人感到忧伤，用过去分词表示被动意义。desolate也可以是形容词，表示人感到忧伤的，但这个形容词一般用作定语。如词典解释和例句：very sad and lonely especially because someone you love has died or left
desolate [=grief|stricken] parents grieving over the death of their
