Comments

Efficiency. The brain doesn't process everything 100%. When it sees something it's checking as it's processing to see if it's familiar to something it already proccessed. If so, it goes "hey, I already did this! I don't need to do it again" and stops and moves on. With the "the"s being so close, the brain's memory of processing it the first time is so recent it almost immediately goes "already done, got a copy if anyone wants proof, not doing this again. Skip!"