def METHOD_NAME(path):
  """Read list of training or validation examples.
  The file is assumed to contain a single example per line where the first
  token in the line is an identifier that allows us to find the image and
  annotation xml for that example.
  For example, the line:
  xyz 3
  would allow us to find files xyz.jpg and xyz.xml (the 3 would be ignored).
  Args:
    path: absolute path to examples list file.
  Returns:
    list of example identifiers (strings).
  """
  with tf.io.gfile.GFile(path) as fid:
    lines = fid.readlines()
  return [line.strip().split(' ')[0] for line in lines]