When I run the script I have just created, I get a strange scenario around the following code:

echo "Check for duplicate UID's, each user should have a unique user ID (UID)"
echo "IF a UID is displayed fix or document why it is required!"
echo "Press enter to continue!"
read a
cut -d: -f3 /etc/passwd | sort -n | uniq -d
echo
echo "Verify current directory (.) does not exist in root's PATH!"

after going through most of the script and using the 'read a' as a pausing mechanism, when I hit enter at the above point instead of getting the correct value returned from the cut line, it just sits at a cursor, and hangs; it just adds a line for everytime you hit return. Now if I take the 'read a ' out at this point and just let it run right through the string works as it is supposed to. Can anyone see why it would behave in this fashion?