Abstract: This paper briefly describes the method of earthquake prediction and categories. Since the 1970s are reviewed several important earthquake predictions, especially short-term earthquake prediction practices at home and abroad. This highlights the difficulty of short-term and impending earthquake prediction and the importance of saving lives as well as the urgency of the social demand. This paper attempts to seek out some profitable enlightment through the decipherment of success and failure for the prediction of some large earthquakes (include examples of Haicheng earthquake, Tangshan earthquake, Wenchuan earthquake in China, some Japan’s earthquake predictions, and Parkfield Earthquake Prediction Experiment in USA). From the enlightment we could find that earthquake prediction, especially short-term earthquake prediction, is difficult but not impossible.The fact shows that it exists a lot of possibilities.