• your news distresses me greatly
• crestfallen, dejected, depressed, despondent, distressed, downcast, dumpy, he is in low water, moping, prostrate, sick, subdued, to be in low spirits, to be in poor spirits, to be out of spirits, to feel blue, woebegone, yellow
• dejectedly, despondently, sadly
• dejectedness, dejection, depression, droop, mood, mopes, prostration
• to knock the book off the table
• to hammer into, to knock into, to rub in
• to flog sg into sy, to hammer sg into sy's head