def load_meta(meta_file):
    """Load metadata file with rows like `utt_id|unit_sequence`.

    Args:
      meta_file: Filepath string for metadata file with utterance IDs and
        corresponding quantized unit sequences, separated by pipes. Input
        unit sequences should be separated by spaces.

    Returns:
      A list of (utterance ID, quantized unit sequence) tuples. 
    """
    quantized_utts = []
    with open(meta_file) as f:
        for row in f:
            utt_id, unit_seq = row.strip().split("|")
            unit_seq = [i for i in unit_seq.split()]
            quantized_utts.append((utt_id, unit_seq))
    return quantized_utts