以下这段代码的default怎么理解，是有个参数为default吗？那么这个default有什么用途呢？我是从c#转来学python的，看到这个函数觉得很奇怪，觉得default是多余的。（代码是从开源程序中copy来的）

def pretty_date(dt, default=None):
    """
    Returns string representing "time since" e.g.
    3 days ago, 5 hours ago etc.
    """

    if default is None:
        default = 'just now'

    now = datetime.utcnow()
    diff = now - dt

    periods = (
        (diff.days / 365, 'year', 'years'),
        (diff.days / 30, 'month', 'months'),
        (diff.days / 7, 'week', 'weeks'),
        (diff.days, 'day', 'days'),
        (diff.seconds / 3600, 'hour', 'hours'),
        (diff.seconds / 60, 'minute', 'minutes'),
        (diff.seconds, 'second', 'seconds'),
    )

    for period, singular, plural in periods:

        if not period:
            continue

        if period == 1:
            return u'%d %s ago' % (period, singular)
        else:
            return u'%d %s ago' % (period, plural)

    return default