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Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
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<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def get_checks_paths(checks_paths=None):
 """ Get path to checks. :param checks_paths: list of str, directories where the checks are present :return: list of str (absolute path of directory with checks) """

    p = os.path.join(__file__, os.pardir, os.pardir, os.pardir, "checks")
    p = os.path.abspath(p)
    # let's utilize the default upstream checks always
    if checks_paths:
        p += [os.path.abspath(x) for x in checks_paths]
    return [p]