<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def html_encode(text):
 """ Encode characters with a special meaning as HTML. :param text: The plain text (a string). :returns: The text converted to HTML (a string). """

    text = text.replace('&', '&amp;')
    text = text.replace('<', '&lt;')
    text = text.replace('>', '&gt;')
    text = text.replace('"', '&quot;')
    return text