Question

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Explanation:

1. Based on the law of supply, higher prices incentivize producers to increase output for more profit.
2. A tripled price means much higher potential profit, so producers will want to increase output.
3. A halved price reduces profit margins, so producers will want to decrease output.
4. This is the standard definition of a supply curve, which maps quantity supplied to different market prices.
5. Oil extraction has variable costs based on location (e.g., shallow vs. deep reserves), so costs differ.
6. Low oil prices mean revenue may not cover extraction costs, so fewer suppliers will find it profitable.
7. The supply curve's upward slope reflects that higher prices make higher-cost production (like oil extraction from more difficult reserves) profitable, linking the oil supplier behavior directly to the curve's shape.

Answer:

1. more
2. more
3. less
4. supply; prices
5. different
6. fewer
7. The upward-sloping supply curve directly reflects this behavior: as prices rise, it becomes profitable to supply more (including from higher-cost oil reserves), and as prices fall, only lower-cost suppliers remain, reducing total supply. The curve's shape is a direct representation of how supplier profitability and quantity supplied respond to price changes.