The sentence that contains a participle functioning as a verb is: "Mateo will only eat cooked carrots."
In this sentence, "cooked" is a participle that describes the carrots and functions as part of the verb phrase in this context.
However, if the focus is strictly on the participle acting as a verb, then the answer would refer to "waiting" in "The students are waiting for the bus," which is correctly functioning as a verb.
To summarize:
- "waiting" in "The students are waiting for the bus" functions as a verb.
- "cooked" in "Mateo will only eat cooked carrots" functions as an adjective.
In this case, the first option with "waiting" is the best choice.