OpenSUSE :: Gnome Terminal: How To Get The Bash Shell

i've finally got a NIX environment...yipee! Installed opensuse 11.2 in a dual boot with windoze with no problem whatsoever. unfortunately, my NIX skills are sadly dated or maybe things have changed or both. in any case, i have a rather trivial problem that i have not been able to figure out.

i go to gnome terminal to get to the bash shell, no problem except when i do things like cat, less and so on. the commands do what they do then when done the last line output is "some text" and "(END)" - at the completion of the command it does not return to the bash shell. i've tried ctrl-everything, enter, escape, actually all keystrokes i can think of to get back to the bash shell...no luck. man and docs have not been helpful or i simply missed the answer (i'm a little saturated at this point).the only thing i've been able to do to solve my dilema is close the terminal an start a new instance, not elegant but works.