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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 read_single(path, encoding = 'UTF-8'):
 """ Reads the first column of a tab-delimited text file. The file can either be uncompressed or gzip'ed. Parameters path: str The path of the file. enc: str The file encoding. Returns ------- List of str A list containing the elements in the first column. """

    assert isinstance(path, (str, _oldstr))
    data = []
    with smart_open_read(path, mode='rb', try_gzip=True) as fh:
        reader = csv.reader(fh, dialect='excel-tab', encoding=encoding)
        for l in reader:
            data.append(l[0])
    return data