Nous avons été très surpris en apprenant la nouvelle.
We were really surprised when we heard the news.
I would have used nous étions instead of nous avons été. Is that not correct?
In English nous avons été très surpris translates to - We have been very surprised which implies the surprise happened and is still ongoing or at least has a prolonged duration, whereas nous étions translates to - We were, which implies it happened but is no longer ongoing. The latter seems to be the correct answer to this question especially since being surprised is usually a point in time thing.