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Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
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Description:
 def markup_description(description):
 """ Apply HTML markup to the given description. """

    if apply_markdown:
        description = apply_markdown(description)
    else:
        description = escape(description).replace('\n', '<br />')
        description = '<p>' + description + '</p>'
    return mark_safe(description)