How would you feel if the letter you penned carefully and posted to your favourite star ended up in the recycling bin？ Thats where unopened fan mail sent to singer Taylor Swift was found in Nashville.

Swifts management[管理人員] said it was an accident， but dealing with piles of letters is a burden for most public figures. According to the BBC reporter Jon Kelly， at the height of his fame， Johnny Depp was said to receive up to 10，000 letters a week.

The dawn of the digital age—in which public figures with a Twitter account[帳戶] can be messaged directly—has made the process[過程] easier. The White House says it deals with 20，000 messages addressed to President Barack Obama each day.

Some celebrities[名人] dont want letters. In 2008， Beatles drummer Ringo Starr didnt mince his words when he announced he would throw them out because he was too busy.

Others do attempt[企圖] to get through it themselves. Robert Pattinson， star of the Twilight films， claims that he reads “tonnes[公噸] and tonnes” of letters from fans.

Many artists， however， outsource the task of opening， reading and replying. Sylvia “Spanky” Taylor， 58， has run a service in California that does just that since 1987. She and her staff deal with up to 20，000 items of mail a month on behalf of[代表] 26 celebrities.

Most letters are simply declarations of affection and admiration， she says. A few ask for money. A small number contain threats which require her to contact the celebritys security team and law enforcement[執(zhí)法].

The biggest problem for Taylor is working out how to dispose of the correspondence. Presents such as soft toys are sent to local hospitals， and the letters： most of them “just get shredded and recycled.”

Typically， correspondence is acknowledged[答謝] by a photo with a printed “autograph.” For some， this is enough， according to Lynn Zubernis， an expert at West Chester University. She says that the relationship between fan and celebrity may exist only in the mind of the former[前者]， but it comes from a deeply-rooted human need for community[社群].

如果你花了一番心思寫了一封信寄給你喜愛的明星，這封信最后卻進了垃圾桶，你會有什么感受？一封未開封、寄給歌手泰勒·斯威夫特的信件在（美國）納什維爾就落得如此下場。

斯威夫特的經(jīng)理人公司說這是一次意外。但對于大多數(shù)公眾人物來說，處理一堆堆的信件確實是一種負(fù)擔(dān)。根據(jù)英國廣播公司（BBC）記者喬恩·凱利的說法，在名氣最旺的時候，據(jù)說約翰尼·德普每周會收到近一萬封信。

數(shù)字時代的來臨令這個過程變得更簡單——人們可以直接給擁有推特賬戶的名人發(fā)信息。白宮說，他們每天要處理兩萬條寫給總統(tǒng)貝拉克·奧巴馬的信息。

一些名人不想收到（粉絲的）信件。2008年，披頭士樂隊鼓手林戈·斯塔爾就直言不諱，聲稱會把信都扔掉，因為他太忙了。

另一些明星則希望可以親自看完它們。《暮光之城》系列電影的明星——羅伯特·帕丁森說他會閱讀“海量”的粉絲信。

然而，很多藝人將開信、讀信和回信的任務(wù)外包出去。58歲的西爾維亞·“斯班克”·泰勒自1987年起就在（美國）加利福尼亞開公司，做的就是處理粉絲信。她和員工每個月代表26個名人處理近兩萬封信件。

她說，大多數(shù)信件只是粉絲們在表達他們的傾慕之情，有些會要錢，一小部分信件含有威脅成分。遇到這種情況，她就要聯(lián)系名人的安全服務(wù)團隊以及執(zhí)法部門。

泰勒面對的最大問題是如何處理郵件。像絨毛玩具這樣的禮物會被送到當(dāng)?shù)蒯t(yī)院，而對于信件：它們基本上會“被切成碎片，然后回收”。

一般情況下，他們會回贈一張印有“親筆簽名”的照片以致謝。（美國）西徹斯特大學(xué)專家林恩·澤布尼斯說，對于一些人而言，這就夠了。她說粉絲和名人的關(guān)系可能只存在于粉絲的腦中，但卻是源于人類對于群體根深蒂固的需求。

Quiz小測驗

閱讀短文并回答問題。

1. Who read the letters to singer Taylor Swift that were found in a bin？

2. Who told fans not to send any letters？

3. Is this statement true or false？ Sylvia “Spanky” Taylor tells the police if fans are threatening her celebrity clients.

4. Which expression means a person who is well-known by his/her own choice？

5. Which word is used to refer to a lot of letters， placed one on top of the other？