The question needs context. You need to ask your friend for more clarification. Relative dates can be quite confusing. If your friend wanted to be more precise in his question, he could add "from today".
"Last two weeks from today" means the last 14 days. Whereas "The last two weeks" could have many meanings depending on context.
Consider this scenario.
Today is Friday, February the 3rd. I ask my friend "What are you doing this Sunday?" which would imply the next Sunday on the calendar (Feb 5). Or I could ask "What are you doing next Sunday", which could imply next week (Feb 12). Even though I asked about "next Sunday" it's not actually the next Sunday.
If somebody asked you "Where did you work last year?" they likely wouldn't mean literally all of 2016 or even the previous 365 days. There would likely be more context to it.
Consider this conversation.
Judy says
"Thanks for coming to visit me on my Birthday!", to which I
reply
"My pleasure! It was easy for me to get here because my new office is just around the corner."
"Where did you work last year?"
"On the other side of town."
Judy isn't asking me what my job has been for the last 365 days, she's asking me where I worked on her birthday last year.
It is a confusing topic that native English speakers still get confused about.
In your specific scenario, it wouldn't be rude to ask him "Do you mean this week and last?" or "Do you meant the last 14 days?" or "Do you mean last week and the week before?". I personally have found it common to ask for clarification of dates in casual conversation. Legal documents and conversation where it really matters would likely have explicit dates.
Your second sentence is correct
I'd rather eat vegetables than meat.
Your third sentence is incorrect since it lacks a verb for "tea".
To express what you are seeking, you might use
I'd rather be drinking tea than eating.
I'd rather drink tea than eat.
Best Answer
The word from is a prepositional term that is used to mark a starting point in time or space. If your subject was once in prison or if he was once caught by Agent Hanratty, you would state "escaped from" to indicate that the subject, at some specific point in time, "escaped" his existing state of captivity.
To state that your subject "escaped prison" or "escaped Agent Hanratty" could also be correct. In this context, the implication is that your subject was nearly sent to prison or that Agent Hanratty almost caught the subject. Since captivity never occurred, we state that your subject "escaped" a circumstance that could have happened.
Since the subject was never held captive, there was never a point in time which the term from can reference. Thus, from is omitted.
However, English is often a tricky language. It isn't uncommon for news headlines to leave out some prepositional terms for the sake of brevity. For instance, a newspaper may run a front-page articles with the headline, "John Doe Escapes Prison!"
Did John Doe escape prison by being acquitted of a court accusation? Did he break out and flee from a prison complex? It is impossible to know without reading the story and gaining further context. This is because newspapers and news sites will quite often omit the word from for the sake of saving a bit of headline space.
This may seem inconsequential. However, often what "feels" right about a spoken language is what is commonly heard or read. If you frequently read headlines and news articles, brevity will feel correct.