import codecs


def read_file(filename, encoding="UTF-8"):
    """
    :param filename: string
    :param encoding: string: the encoding of the file to read (standart: `UTF-8`)
    :return: list of strings: the lines of the file
    """
    f1 = codecs.open(filename, encoding=encoding)
    lines = f1.read()
    f1.close()
    return lines