re:We actually DO have (if my geography serves me) a few jungles in tropical regions in U.S. territory - and they're very commonly refered to as such - in Hawaii, in Peurto Rico, possibly in other U.S. possessions.
are they? or are they called tropical rain forests? (and over on the pacific north west (fiberbabe been around lately?) we have temperate rain forests...
Jungles.. are wild, unmanged, uncharted(to european eyes)messy areas..(and we still use jungle in the messy sense...the was a jungle of wires behind the computer, connecting it to a printer, a phone, a scanner, with several power cords as well...
jungle tend to mean a place with unknown risks, and unknown life forms.
forests, can be wild(american, with lots of under brush, and wild growth), or managed, (european style), hard wood, pine,redwood, tropical, or rain-- but forest implies a wooded area, that is know,(ie, civilized in some way!)
not that forest can't be dangerous, with as they say in Oz,"with lions and tigers and bears"--which are known dangers...
Woods are some times used for extremely large forests...(The back woods (of kentucky, or other part of southern US, or the Piney woods--for the once vast stands in georgia and alabama area, or the north woods(new england and how US'ers define canadian woods.), or even the great redwoods of north west. woods are wilder areas than forests.. but jungles are areas that are "unknown"-- but of course they weren't unknown to the indiginous people who lived in them, only to the europeans who came to exploit them!
